![\"Bad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-1236459925-e1770626350692.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny and LeBron James share a laugh during a break in the action against the Hornets at Staples Center <\/p>\n
Rapper Bad Bunny reminded LeBron James that JJ Barea won an NBA championship before the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> star did, during his Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cY de Barea, el que fue campe\u00f3n primero que Lebron,\u201d Bunny said during one of his songs, which translates to \u201cAnd Barea, the one who became champion before LeBron.\u201d<\/p>\n Bunny was referencing the 2011 NBA Finals when Barea\u2019s Dallas Mavericks<\/a> upset James\u2019 Heat to capture their franchise-first NBA championship. The series shifted when then-Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle inserted Barea into the starting lineup in Game 4 when his team trailed 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. The move meant that Barea injected new life into the Mavs, who won three games in a row to stun the Heat.<\/p>\n When Barea Bothered LeBron James<\/p>\n James averaged just 15.1 points in Games 4, 5 and 6, incidentally the three games in which Barea was in Dallas\u2019 starting unit. While the 5-foot-10 Barea wasn\u2019t the primary defender on James, he made life difficult for the four-time MVP as a pesky help defender and applied pressure on the former Heat star through double teams.<\/p>\n In the lead-up to Game 4, Barea was told that his task was to pressure James.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing into Game 4, I remember coach [Carlisle said], \u201cHey, you\u2019re going to start, and we\u2019re going to put DeShawn Stevenson off the bench.\u201d I said, \u201cOK, I\u2019ll be ready,\u201d Barea recalled, via ESPN.<\/a> \u201cThere was going to be some times when I have to guard bigger people like LeBron. It\u2019s tough, but I was pretty good at guarding bigger guys away from the paint. I liked it. I knew they were going to try to bully me.\u201d<\/p>\n Interestingly, Barea also felt that James lost his \u201cconfidence\u201d after Game 4.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we won [Game 4], that\u2019s when everything started to change. [James\u2019] confidence went away, especially on offense. That\u2019s when I really knew we had a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n LeBron James Melts Down<\/p>\n James, who infamously scored just eight points in Game 4, has referred to the Heat versus Mavericks series as the \u201clowest\u201d point of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cI played like s\u2013t,\u201d James said<\/a> of his performance in the 2011 Finals on his \u201cMind the Game\u201d podcast a few years ago. \u201c\u2026 I told myself the way I played, unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh for sure. The lowest,\u201d James said of where the loss ranks in his career lowlights. James averaged 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists in the six-game series.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that Bad Bunny\u2019s diss of LeBron James on Sunday isn\u2019t out of the blue, as the words come from his 2022 song, \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n,\u201d which pays tribute to his fellow Puerto Rican, JJ Barea. While the song was written in 2022, James and Bunny have remained friends and were seen interacting at several Lakers home games in 2023.<\/p>\n Furthermore, James was in attendance for a Bunny concert in Puerto Rico last year, following which he showered the rapper with praise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was unbelievable. I had an unbelievable time,\u201d James said of his visit to Puerto Rico<\/a>. \u201cIt was actually the opening weekend, the time I was there. Puerto Rico is a great place for me, they always welcome me and my friends and my family there, and there\u2019s so much respect that I have for the island and everybody down there.\u201d<\/p>\n James also congratulated Bad Bunny for landing the Super Bowl halftime show gig.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m super happy for Bad Bunny that he\u2019s able to represent the Super Bowl in San Francisco. That\u2019s gonna be super dope and hopefully I could be there, man, just to support him,\u201d James said in October.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great friend of mine, so it was great to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Bad Bunny and LeBron James share a laugh during a break in the action against the Hornets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-282024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}