LeBron James compares Lakers slow start to season to Pittsburgh Steelers

LeBron James’ love of the NFL has been apparent throughout his career. While it’s been a question at times who his favorite team is, he’s always been one to tune in and attend NFL games.

The launch of his weekly picks stream on Instagram is the most recent example of his love for football. So it should probably come with little surprise that he jumped at the opportunity to make an NFL comparison when talking about the Lakers. In fact, the only surprising thing about it all is that it took this long to do it.

Following Saturday’s loss to the Magic, LeBron named an NFL team that he feels has had a similar start to its season as the purple and gold.

“We’re like the Pittsburgh Steelers right now,” LeBron said. “The Pittsburgh Steelers right now have not outgained or outscored any of their opponents in this season right now, and yet they have a winning record.”

First, let me add a clarification to what I think LeBron meant with that second sentence. Obviously, it’s impossible for a team to have not outscored any opponent and have won any game, let alone the five the Steelers have. However, Pittsburgh does have a point differential of -30 despite being 5-3.

In those senses, the comparison for the Lakers makes sense. They’re a team that certainly has not clicked on all cylinders but has a 3-3 record even after falling to Orlando.

A good amount of the Lakers' struggles could be chalked up to injuries, but they have glaring flaws so far as well, namely in their rebounding woes. It’s hard to fully judge the team, though, without seeing them whole.

Hopefully, the Lakers will be able to return to full health soon and we can start to make those judgments. And hopefully the comparisons to the Steelers, who have missed the playoffs the last two seasons, stop there.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.