LeBron James was staring at his basketball mortality in the face.
His team had been swept in the Western Conference finals the prior spring and his body was showing undeniable signs of age, the mileage mounting while James’ willingness to keep fighting seemed to lessen.
“I’ve got a lot to think about, to be honest,” he said the night the Lakers got bounced in 2023. “Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”
A little more than 16 months later, the questions about the future feel like ancient history. With the dawn of his 22nd NBA training camp a day away, James bounced with energy. The greys had all been erased from his beard. His oldest son is now his teammate. And the shine from his latest gold medal hasn’t come close to deadening.
“I feel damn good. I had a great summer. I had a great summer,” James repeated on Monday. “Body was responding very well overseas along with Team USA. So [I] took care of that. And I kept that going. Even when we stopped playing, I kept it going. So I feel really good physically. Mentally, I feel really good. Really sharp. Very fresh. Looking forward to getting to work tomorrow. I have not thought about what the future holds. Kind of just living in the moment. Especially with Bronny being here too.
“I don’t want to take this moment for granted. I’ve always kind of never gave myself an opportunity to kind of just, like, you know, I guess, take in the moments.”
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James re-signed with the Lakers this summer, committing to this year with a player option for next season.
The moments to come with Bronny James, the Lakers rookie guard, will be history every time they happen, the first father-son duo to play in the NBA at the same time, nevertheless on the same team. They undoubtedly have James excited for the year.
“If we get a couple of opportunities on the floor throughout the course of the season, obviously that’s going to be amazing. It’ll be awesome. And we’ll wait for that moment when it happens and then go from there.”
Bronny James, sharing the dais with fellow rookie Dalton Knecht, said the first official day of work with his father was surreal.
“This is a crazy feeling,” Bronny James said. “I was actually doing my radio [interview] over there, just looking over at my dad taking pictures. It was like, ‘What’s going on right now?’ [That was] literally my thoughts. Just kind of take it all in. Extremely grateful for the opportunity.”
But the other thing that happened this summer — the win in the Olympics — seemingly has James just as energized for more championship experiences, the lessons from Paris leaving little doubt in his mind.
“It gives you a lot of joy to be able to play the game, play it a high level, come to work every day, push each other. And for myself individually, to go out there at my age, the miles that I have, and to be able to play at the level I played at, it gave me, like, OK, even more of a sense of like, ‘OK, I do have a lot in the tank. A lot,’” he said.
“And I can help a big part of a team win the ultimate and whatever — if it’s gold, or if it’s a Larry O’Brien Trophy, or whatever the case may be, I can still get it done. So that was pretty cool just from an individual standpoint to know that you can be out there with the best players in the world and still be able to have a big part of it.”
James and Anthony Davis’ performance in the Olympics was a sign to some Laker fans that the duo is still more than enough to be a force in the NBA if the pieces around them fit.
One of those pieces, D’Angelo Russell, even went to Paris to watch his teammates star.
“I thought it was really cool to watch him play at that level. The camaraderie that they had was a beautiful thing as well,” Russell said. “You get to see, like, what style of play compliments those guys too. Me, I kind of had an idea throughout the time I’ve been here, learning how to play with those guys, around those guys and without those guys. So I think just seeing a lot of the stars in our league and how they carried themselves on and off the floor, I just picked up a few things as well.”
Russell was one of the biggest surprises of the day, vowing to make more winning plays without the basketball in his hands, even going as far to apologize for last season while not hiding his excitement for JJ Redick and the Lakers’ new coaching staff.
“I really want to apologize in the sense of showing a lack of professionalism at times. Showing a lack of team-first perception at times. So for me, just keeping that maturity and that professionalism throughout the year no matter the ups and downs,” Russell said. “Holding myself more accountable on the defensive end. Obviously, I know I’m capable.
“But when you get subbed out of the game for offensive-defensive possession, that shows where your trust is with your coach and your ability. So for me, just trying to gain that trust with coach defensively. And consistently, I’m going to show up every day, practice, game, preseason, whatever, knowing that coach has that trust in me as well.”
For Davis, the other Laker gold medal owner, the summer hasn’t changed the slights he perceives from observers who still don’t fully comprehend his worth.
Asked what people don’t appreciate about his game, Davis quickly shot back.
“Every part,” he said.
Still, with another coaching change, Davis is once again being tasked with expanding his range out to the three-point line, a common thread in conversations between Redick and his new players.
“Obviously, we have one of the best shooters to ever play in our head coach, JJ. He’s been on me all summer about shooting threes,” Davis said. “Even the Olympics, when I make a three, he’ll text me, ‘That’s what I wanna see,’ things like that.”
The Lakers won’t be full in their frontcourt Tuesday when they open camp, with Christian Wood (knee) and Jarred Vanderbilt (foot) both recovering from offseason procedures. Still, there was a lot of optimism.
And with James hungry to repeat the feeling from the summer in Paris, who knows?
“I don’t ever lose touch with the game of basketball,” he said. “But it felt damn good to play — it felt great to play meaningful basketball.”
Tuesday, the Lakers try to get back to that — questions about their aging star’s future plans to be answered some other time.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
