LeBron James wants the world to know he’s playing defense this year for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Well, actually, not totally. He wanted an official during Tuesday night’s Los Angeles Lakers win over the Oklahoma City Thunder — in which he got a record-setting triple-double — to know that he’s playing defense this year. It’s just that a fan sitting courtside captured what James said, and now it’s going viral.

It’s a great little inside NBA moment, but it’s also a reminder that James IS actually playing really good defense this year, along with his teammates.

Here’s the video with the exchange:

“I know you’ve been reading and saying I haven’t been playing defense the last couple of years, but it’s a new year!”

I don’t know what prompted that, but this seems like a good a time as any to confirm it — it is a new year, and James is playing some really good defense.

He had a defensive rating of 107.6 last year, and that’s improved to 96.4 early on. The Lakers as a whole are tied for the fewest points allowed per game, and it probably helps that Anthony Davis is also there.

I think what James is referring to is talk about how he had to take on more offensive responsibility with the Cavaliers in his final year in Cleveland and with the Lakers last season, and that cost him on the defensive end.

But now he has a balanced team — he has Davis’s help on both ends, some lane-clogging centers in JaVale McGee and a rejuvenated Dwight Howard, a bench scorer in Kyle Kuzma … so maybe he has the energy to put in more work on the defensive end.

So, yes. It’s a new year.