A chronology of some things that happened.

1) In a conversation with ESPN.com’s Tom Haberstroh on Monday, LeBron James rejected the idea that he’s coasting.

“We’ll see Wednesday how I’m coasting,” James said jokingly as he made his way into the Heat locker room on Monday. “You’ll see the numbers I’ll put up on Wednesday. Just watch.”

2) Wednesday’s game, of course, was against the Wizards. So Wizards fans panicked.

LeBron: “We’ll see Wednesday how I’m coasting. You’ll see the numbers I’ll put up on Wednesday. Just watch.” http://t.co/JDkYDpJ5YJ — Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) January 15, 2014

Translation: EVERYONE PANIC. — Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) January 15, 2014

3) Meanwhile, in an attempt to elevate the discourse, Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless discussed LeBron’s remarks on their cable program.

“If LeBron James wants to turn around and drop 50 on the Washington Wizards, I’m pretty sure there’s little to nothing they can do about it,” Smith said on Wednesday.

“The poor Wizards, they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bayless said.

“My condolences to the Wizards, my condolences, my bad,” Smith said. “You know, Ernie, and Randy, I love those guys, my man Eddie Tapscott. I love y’all. I really feel bad for the Wizards tonight.”

4) The Wizards won in a rout.

5) The next day, the program that employs Smith and Bayless attempted to grapple with this result. The host asked guest analyst George Karl about just how shocking this was, for a Wizards team that was 3-4 in its previous seven games against Miami to actually have beaten the Heat.

“I’m amazed at the reaction that the Heat lost, to be honest with you,” Karl said. “To be honest with you, I think the Washington Wizards played a great basketball game last night. We’re ignoring the fact that this is a pretty good young basketball team. Beal and Wall are two young kids trying to establish themselves in the NBA, and it was their national championship game. And their whole team played at a high, high level. And when Washington shoots the ball very well, they’re pretty good.”

6) Faced with such an argument, Bayless thought about whether he should say something sensible, and then decided this would be a poor time to start.

“I do believe that Stephen A. and I deserve game balls for last night,” he said. “Because I do think we helped motivate the Wizards.”

(Via @burtonhen)