LeBron James forgets about Los Angeles Kings in embarrassing press conference gaffe

Back in 1994, Sports Illustrated ran a cover story proclaiming, “The NHL (is) hot and the NBA’s not.”

Fast forward nearly 30 years, and LeBron James, the face of the NBA for the last 20 years and perhaps the greatest basketball player ever, doesn’t even know his own local NHL team.

The King was asked by reporters on Sunday before the NBA All-Star Game about the prospect of owning the NBA’s hypothetical 31st franchise in Las Vegas. James, who has been vocal about wanting to be involved, going as far as to call out NBA commissioner Adam Silver by name, once again reiterated his stance.

“I would love to at some point down the road own an NBA franchise, (and) to be able to bring a winning franchise to a city,” James said. “Vegas is a really cool city, they’re doing some great things in sports these days. Obviously you’ve seen what the Aces are doing, how you’ve got the Raiders there, you’ve got the Kings (sic) there, the hockey team.”

James quickly followed that up, checking with reporters for clarification on the hockey team. When the press responded by correcting him that the local NHL team in Las Vegas was actually the Vegas Golden Knights, LeBron’s one-word response was perhaps even more discouraging.

“Who?”

The future NBA Hall of Famer eventually jogged his memory enough to recall that the Kings were actually in Los Angeles, noting that there are “two Kings in L.A.”

As for the Los Angeles Kings themselves, in the midst of a four-game winning streak and rocketing back up the standings after a cold spell, their response was just as snappy as expected for a team with the cache of playing in Hollywood.

James and his NBA All-Star squad, which he selected and then captained for his record-tying 19th All-Star Game, took on team Team Giannis Antetokounmpo during Sunday night’s festivities. The night was filled with special guests as the Association celebrated LeBron’s record-setting greatness in a high scoring 184-175 All-Star game win for Team Giannis.