Powell felt that James pulling his jersey in the middle of the game was disrespectful.
In Game 3 of the 2017 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors, Norman Powell got into an incident with LeBron James on the court. Powell thought that was being called out of the game so while he walked to the Raptors bench, James pulled his jersey and told him that it wasn’t him who was being subbed out. Powell took James’ jersey tug as an insult and still remembers it until today.
“He pulled my jersey like little boy me…so I’m like I smack his hand away and tuck my jersey in. I’m like man, don’t do that. So he look at me like ‘I’m trying to help you,’” Powell said in his appearance on Paul George’s Podcast P.
Powell forgot about it but the media didn’t
Powell may have considered James pulling his jersey as an insult but he decided it wasn’t worth holding a grudge over. However, he was shocked to find out how it blew up across multiple media platforms, including ESPN who made a big deal out of it.
Some media platforms even tried to paint James as a genius for what he did to Powell because he was aware of everything that was happening on the court, including who the opposing team was subbing in and out.
