While the Kings were making a splash, their newest player was on his old team's bench.
Sacramento and the Dallas Mavericks agreed to a trade Wednesday night that will bring Harrison Barnes to California's capital. Yet Barnes finished the night in Dallas, subbing out of the Mavericks' game against the Charlotte Hornets with 3:11 remaining in the third quarter before staying on the Mavs' bench.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James made it clear in an Instagram post he wasn't a fan of how everything went down.
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"[Dallas traded] this man while he was literally playing in the game and had ZERO idea," James wrote. "I'm not knocking who traded him because it's a business and you have to do what you feel what's best [sic] but I just want this narrative to start to get REAL/CHANGE."
James went on to write that he saw a double standard with how people react to players changing teams in free agency or requesting trades -- often calling them selfish -- compared to their reactions when franchises ship out their own players.
"I'm ok with both honestly, truly am," James wrote in the post. "Just call [a spade a spade]!!"
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Those conversations have followed the 34-year-old throughout his career, from signing with the Miami Heat as a free agent in 2010 to his perceived role orchestrating fellow Klutch Sports client Anthony Davis' recent trade request to the Lakers. James is at the forefront of turning the NBA into a league where transactions are player-driven, but players still face criticism for trying to use that power.
Davis seemed to agree.
The trade deadline has, somehow, still not passed.
