LeBron James is confident the Los Angeles Lakers’ move will put him in a position to defend his NBA championship.
“We can [repeat]. I mean, it’s easy, “James said on an episode of” Road Tripin, “a podcast hosted by Richard Jefferson, Channing Fry and Eli Clifton, aired Tuesday on Spectrum SportsNet. We can do exactly that. … First of all, it all starts with health. You have to get a little luck. You have to stay healthy. If we can stay healthy. “
James, the Lakers, took part in his first extended interview since leaving the bubble in Land Rlando, Florida, followed by the acquisitions of Derris Schroeder, Montreux Herald and Mark Gasol – some of the LA’s se fisson no. – As a source of confidence when considering title defense.
“We got younger,” James said, appearing relaxed in a tie-colored shirt and slippers on a teacup glass during the episode, James said. “We have a 27-year-old point guard [in Schroder]. We received the 27-year-old Sixth Man of the Year award [winner] In the treasury. We grew up. We got Mark, who is the defensive player of the year and his IQ, not only against him in the NBA, but also against him playing against the national team against Spain. “
James sent greetings to his former teammates who are no longer with the Lakers, too: Danny Green and Dwight Howard in Philadelphia; Rajon Rondo in Atlanta; Jawale McGee in Cleveland; And free-agent guard Quinn Cook. “Even though the championship is part of the clclub, whether you play zero minutes or you’re 30-40 minutes, it connects all the relationships into one, because we all challenge each other every day,” he said.
Sometimes heavily scrutinized for careers when it comes to employee decisions that have played on teams throughout his career, James hinted at some future roster possibilities for the Lakers, which will begin training camp on Thursday.
“Quinn, she’s a pro, she’ll definitely get a look,” James said. “Hopefully he’ll come back with us … hopefully we can bring him back.”
He didn’t even close the door on Mark Gasol’s older brother, Pau Gasol, returning to a potential franchise where he won two championships together with Kobe Bryant.
“When James was asked if he thought 40-year-old Gasol LA could return,” James said, “We’ll see, I mean, maybe. We’ll see. We’ll see.”
It looks like James, who is starting on his 18th season, won’t have much to look forward to, while L.A. With two games against the Clippers, then two matches against the Phoenix Suns.
He said, “Precision, I’m not too worried.” “I round 36. … don’t worry about me in prejudice.”
After putting the 2019-20 season on hold due to an epidemic in March, the NBA Arena will have a schedule of first-time performances of league games. James and the Lakers emerged victorious from a 22-team bubble that required daily COVID-19 testing, but doubts about the NBA’s plans for the 2020-21 season.
“I’m very interested in seeing what the protocol will be,” James said. “There have been discussions, there have been conversations. They had to make sure we could continue the season. Clearly for a variety of reasons. “
Jefferson interrupted James’ idea to suggest “money” as the primary motivator for the NBA, with which James agreed.
“The biggest reason,” James said.
League owners believe the NBA could lose anywhere from 500 500 million to 1 1 billion by Christmas not starting this season, according to a report by ESPN’s Adrian Wozniacki. “But the safety of our players and the safety of our owners and the safety of our GMs and the safety of our coaches and training staff and things, is more important than anything,” James said. “I’m very interested to see how they deal with this because we all know that Kovid is still very active. And they really told us that in the winter, it will be more active than at any time and we just “Either you see the snow or not, it’s winter and it’s evaporating. So, I just want to see how we deal with this.”
When James recently shared photos of a work-in-court workout with his 16-year-old son Brownie, he revealed on the podcast that he only “touched the basketball twice” during the cut-off fiasco. Of course, the last time he held a rock in his hand, things were going well. James won his fourth NBA title while defeating the Miami Heat 4-2 in the championship round to declare the final MVP for the fourth time.
But not before facing the challenge of moving to Florida for more than three months.
James said, “It’s almost the same feeling when you first go to a haunted house.” You get excited by your friends. Your friends tell you how great it is. And you’re going to get juicy, juicy, and juicy – you don’t really realize how scary it is – until you go inside that haunted house. And that’s what I’m comparing to a bubble.
“We were all excited to come back. We were excited to play basketball again. I mean we stopped playing in March, so we were all excited, but what are you really giving yourself until you come?” You don’t really know it. Inside the bubble and they tell you, ‘That’s it, you can’t go out that door.’
James also reflected on the moment when the Milwaukee Bucks led a wild Ildcut strike during the first round of the Bucks playoffs in response to Jacob Blake’s police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. James said Bucks’ unilateral decision caused uncertainty for the rest of the league.
“Because of what happened in the backyard at Milwaukee, they decided to boycott the game, in which another innocent black man was killed,” James said. “So I got on the phone with Chris Paul, because his game was ahead, and I called him and Rush [Westbrook] And I told them straight up, ‘There’s no way we can go on the floor like the Lakers and play our game with what turns into a game. What are you guys going to do? And he felt the same way. … We would look stupid if we went out and played and Milwaukee decided to sit down and we are proclaiming this unity as brotherhood. Because we are brothers. Whenever you turn a blind eye to your brother. “
James used military similarities to try to get his point across.
“When we are all together as an army, if we are an army and we go out for war and we say we are in unity here and someone in front decides to go before they say ‘Charge!’ “Now we’re all caught by the guards,” he said. “So that’s what happened. And to be honest I was ready to run. I was ready to walk. I called my wife and called my mom and said I was probably home. “
He also explained his reasoning for leaving the All-Hands on No-Deck meeting after the Bucks boycott, when some members of the Lakers and Clippers joined him, leaving many in the room thinking the teams would leave the season. .
“When I got out we sat there and talked for two, three, four hours and still had no plans. So I got out. Because my time is so precious. And I knew what could help change,” he said. Said James. “But when you deal with a group with a lot of emotion [people], A lot of ego, a lot of people who are passionate about them and what they believe, it is difficult to decide a plan at the moment. So it was best to get out of me. “
It was a turning point in NBA history and is one of many stories of bubbles that will definitely be revisited over the coming years.
“Ninety-six days, 95 nights,” James said of his time in Bubbe. “I’ll never forget it.”
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