LAKERS’ POWERFUL, PATIENT LEADER
LeBron James is able to relate to his younger teammates, but he wants to be strong, serious mentor
IT TAKES LEBRON JAMES only 20 minutes to get from his home in Brentwood to the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo each morning, a feat that might be more impressive than his eight consecutive NBA Finals appearances given Los Angeles traffic patterns. He doesn’t actually drive, which might be responsible for keeping him sane.
From the back seat he sometimes watches television shows. Often he listens to music and will show up at training knowing the words of a new rap song better than some of his young teammates.
“He loves Young Dolph,” said Brandon Ingram, who was born two years before James started high school. “Oh my God. Can’t get him to stop listening to Young Dolph.”
Sometimes James reads a book during his commute. He likes reading about history, especially critical time periods for civil rights.
“But I also love the mob,” James said one October morning, about an hour before practice. He smiled like a student talking about his favorite subject in school. “I’m a huge mob fan, so going all the way back to those days of some of the greatest mob bosses.”
Right now, James is reading “Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution.” His voice quickens as he talks about this subject he loves so much.
That commute complete, he transforms
THIS LAKERS TEAM is unlike any James has joined in free agency.
The Miami Heat he signed with in 2010 were a veteran-laden group, with three ready-made stars and immediate championship expectations.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were younger, headlined by Kyrie Irving, who was entering his fourth season when James returned.
They had a high-profile rookie, but Cleveland traded Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love a month after signing James.
In a letter he wrote announcing his return to Cleveland, James said he thought he could help elevate Irving to one of the league’s best point guards. During the Finals this year, James said he saw in Irving the potential for a cerebral player who thinks about the game at a high level.
But the point guard, now 26, sometimes chafed in James’ shadow and eventually asked for a trade.
As he discussed what he’s learned from the past, James, 33, never specifically mentioned Irving.
“I can’t give you like a definite point in time but in my 16-year career I’ve learned every year how to be more and more and more of a leader,” James said. “And more of a communicator and how I can communicate to certain guys and get the best out of certain guys. One thing that you learn when you become a parent is that if you have multiple kids, to get the most out of your kids you can’t teach them all the same way.”
Here the Lakers have Ingram (21), Lonzo Ball (20), Kyle Kuzma (23) and Josh Hart (23), all of whom are closer in age to James’ eldest son than they are to James.
“I think it’s pretty cool to know where they are at their point in their lives and how much more room for growth not only as a basketball player but as young men,” James said. “So that’s exciting to be around. They have that young men energy, which is always great.”
JAMES BECAME A PARENT young, and has said he always wanted that.
In part it was a contrast to his own upbringing by his mother, Gloria, who was 16 when she had him. James was 19 years old when he became a father.
James and his wife, Savannah, have three children — a 14-year-old son, an 11year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter.
All three of them have a presence on social media, with only their youngest having
grown up completely in the Instagram age.
“It took almost a year for me to actually put a picture of my daughter on social media,” James said.
James grew up in the type of spotlight that he doesn’t want for his kids.
When he went on a two-week cleanse during which he skipped alcohol, sugars, dairy and gluten, James insisted that his kids needed to be kids when it came to their diet. His oldest son is a standout in basketball. While some prospects garner media attention well before college, James’ son isn’t allowed to do interviews until he’s 18.
It’s colored by what James experienced as one of the most famous teenagers in the world. James was 17 when he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time.
“They have seen their dad go through it for so long as a professional that nothing is really gonna surprise them,” James said. “Both of my boys are on social media right now. Some for the greater good but also I wish it wasn’t, but it is what it is.”
They’ve taught him the importance of knowing that people’s needs are different. They’ve taught him the value of patience.
His role, though, is significantly different with his children than it is with his teammate. He’s never coached his kids, after all.
BY THE TIME THE LAKERS started training camp, James had been in the gym for weeks.
If his young teammates were in awe of his presence, they got over that pretty quickly — or at least pretended to. “He not God,” Ball said one day. Kuzma dismissed the idea of being starstruck.
“I’m kind of past that point,” Kuzma said. “It’s going into my second year playing. I’ve been through playing a lot of games so you know it’s kind of another game.”
Ingram said there wasn’t much time to think about it since they had a game to play shortly. James doesn’t want one-sided awe. “If we’re serious about what we’re here for and we’re putting in the time, we should all have awe moments,” James said. “For me I’m just one of the guys. I’m one of the guys, I come in, I punch my clock in, I put my hard hat on and I go to work every single day like the rest of them. I just want to lead those guys as much as they would like me to lead.”
That is the line James must discover. How much do they want him to lead?
That is a line James keeps in mind. But there is a mentality he hopes his teammates will reach. He knows how to switch instantly from a lighthearted, jovial mood to a focused, business-like attitude.
In waiting for that, too, James is asking for patience from himself.
“I think it will be a learning experience for them,” James said. “Some of them, they don’t know. You can’t expect them to know. So you have to understand, you have to guide them and teach them and allow them to make mistakes because I believe the best teacher in life is experience, so you have to allow them to make mistakes and fall on their face and get back up and see how they react to that.”
That’s another lesson fatherhood taught him.
A DAY AFTER JAMES enthusiastically discussed his reading habits, he strolled into a hallway at an arena in Las Vegas holding “Havana Nocturne.”
He was mostly stoic, clipped and businesslike during the ensuing news conference, with some sarcasm drizzled into his words. When someone asked about the book, he nonchalantly explained his love of mob stories. “The Godfather” is one of his favorite movies.
This stoicism doesn’t represent what the Lakers see in him regularly.
“He knows everything from top to bottom,” said Ingram, who might not be awestruck that he gets to share a court with James, but he is amazed at that. “Songs. Everything. I mean he acts like a kid. He acts like one of us. Of course he keeps it professional all the time. [But he also] acts like one of us on a daily basis.”
Ingram hasn’t felt a patronizing tone. He laughed in acknowledgment about James’ sons helping James stay abreast of things his young teammates might like — “Me and his son listen to the same music,” Ingram said — but Ingram also said James doesn’t treat him or his teammates like his children. Every day he learns more about them. “You get more and more comfortable with how to approach them, how to get the best out of them, how to lead them, how to respect them as well because we are all professionals,” James said. “Even though they are younger than me, we are all professionals so you have to keep that in mind.”