LeBron James Fires Back On Report Making Him Out To Be Lakers' 'Bad Guy'

The Los Angeles Lakers are still treading water entering the midway point of the season with not many options to improve and LeBron James feels as if his recent comments have been twisted to fit a narrative.

Following another stellar performance this season against the Sacramento Kings, The Athletic's Sam Amick had a quick catch-up with "King James" on the latter's way to the team bus and put out a piece about his supposed "frustrations" with the Lakers.

James took to Twitter to vent his frustrations about Amick's piece, going so far as to retweet Amick's original post in his public reply.

"Hey Sam (Amick), actually my patience isn't waning. You make it sound like I'm frustrated when I'm really not. I told you over and over, my job is focused on the guys in the locker room, my job isn't the roster. That's the reality of that conversation," James wrote.

"And I said what I said with the [utmost] respect and calmness 'cause that's the mood I'm in! [You are] welcome!"

The 19-year NBA veteran deciding to respond in this manner is not unheard of as it paints him in a bad light when looking at the line of questioning that Amick had given James.

Amick's angle in the piece was about the potential of the Lakers making a move ahead of the trade deadline on February 9 and how involved he personally was with front-office decisions potentially being made by Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and team owner Jeanie Buss.

James did indeed tell Amick "over and over" about his focus being solely on the "guys in the locker room" with the line "you guys know" repeated although out the transcription provided by Amick.

The line that most likely got the public talking about the supposed frustration James harbored within him is the final line in their conversation – "[You all] know what the [expletive] should be happening. I don't need to talk."

Despite the many issues that have hounded the Lakers this season, Los Angeles was able to produce their first five-game winning streak of the season with James putting up an average of 38 points on 58 percent field goal shooting, nine rebounds, and eight assists.

Talks of the Lakers making a move in the buyout and trade markets have been the talk of the town for much of the season in Los Angeles since the team sorely needs a change in order to better compete in the perennially brutal Western Conference.

However, the Lakers will need to be smart with their moves then since both markets could produce less-than-stellar results due to the salary cap combined with a lack of desirable assets outside of James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook.

The Lakers are in an unenviable position of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Their hopes of postseason contention will be closely tied to whether their core trio can continue to produce magic the rest of the way.