Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James violated protocol by attending event, NBA says

Jordan, had to produce proof of vaccination or a recent negative test result in order to attend.Even with those measures, James, who has declined to say whether he has received the COVID-19 vaccination, was found to be in violation of the league's health and safety protocols."It's a violation of the agreed upon protocols, and, as we have in other comparable instances around the league, it has been addressed with the team," a league spokesman told ESPN on Friday.James and the No. 7-seeded Lakers will play the Western Conference's No. 2-seeded Phoenix Suns in Game 1 of their first-round series Sunday (3:30 ET, ABC).Despite being the lower seed, L.A. is riding a six-game winning streak heading into the Suns series, with James back on the court for the past three victories after missing 26 of the Lakers' 28 games prior to that because of a high right ankle sprain.Several weeks ago, James explained his thought process behind sitting out additional games down the stretch, saying, "at the end of the day if I'm not 100% or close to 100%, it don't matter where we land [in the standings]."With that reasoning in mind, James was asked by a reporter on Friday if the consequences that come with being placed in the league's health and safety protocols during the playoffs -- being unavailable to his teammates for potentially up to a 10-to-14 day stretch -- affected his decision of whether to pursue the vaccine."Anything I do off the floor is predicated to my family, for the majority -- for 99.9% of that," James said.