James: Playoff push among ‘most important games of my career’
Looking back on 20 years in the NBA, LeBron James has no shortage of key seasons and sequences that defined his career.
But coming up, the 38-year-old seems to think the last stretch of games this season will define him, too.
Speaking ahead of his 19th All-Star Game appearance Sunday afternoon, James stressed the urgency the Lakers (27-32) face trying to climb up from 13th in the Western Conference back into the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
“It’s 23 of the most important games of my career for a regular season,” he said. “It’s the type of mindset that I have, and I hope the guys will have, coming back off the break.”
While James’ selection as an All-Star captain for Sunday’s game was a reminder of his still-towering stature within the NBA world, he and his team have still been looking up at most of the league from near the bottom of the standings. The Lakers have been scrapping since the beginning of the season (following a 2-10 start) and haven’t even been in playin position for most of the year.
The team’s trades — most prominently landing the D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt, who all started in the last game before the break — have sparked some sense of hope, even as the Lakers sit two games out of 10th place with 23 games remaining. The Lakers had the benefit of winning
Wednesday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans comfortably, which James said was nice to see, but that he wished the team could have kept playing rather than getting time off.
“The worst thing for us is that we had to go on a break,” he said. “I would have loved if we could have played Friday and got a couple of games under our belt because it’s the first time our whole group was together from top to bottom.”
The time off, however, might be best for James. He missed three straight games with a left foot injury that he and the team have said isn’t a structural problem, but has been painful and required close monitoring.
He spent several days with his wife, Savannah James, on retreat, including a trip to Antelope Canyon in Arizona. The getaway was a break for his foot as well. James said he would strive to be available in each of the final 23 games to make sure the Lakers make it to the playoffs.
“This couple of days has helped, not having to stress it being out on the floor,” he said. “So it’s helped. I’m going to try not to go too crazy in the (All-Star) game. … The most important thing for me right now is to maintain my health and be available to my teammates after this break because we have to make a strong push if we want to do anything special.”
James previously staked his belief that he would be back in the NBA’s postseason nearly a year ago, as he watched the playoffs from home: “I can/will NOT miss the post season again for my career! This (expletive) HURT.” By the end of December, with the Lakers struggling in the standings, he had quietly deleted the tweet.
But James, who went to eight straight Finals and made nine Finals in a 10year span, knows he’s being judged on the end of his career. While the undeniable peak of his fiveyear Laker stint is the 2020 championship when he won Finals MVP, James has missed the playoffs twice in his previous four seasons, and the Lakers didn’t advance out of the first round in 2021.
James has never missed back-to-back postseasons — and he doesn’t plan to.
“I don’t want to see myself not being part of the postseason for two years straight — it’s just not part of my DNA,” he said. “We’re sitting up here talking about the record and things of that nature, and that’s all cool, but I’m more passionate about trying to make the postseason and give ourselves a chance to compete for another Larry O’Brien Trophy.”
It was less than two weeks ago when James became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in a game against Oklahoma City, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In his press conference, James claimed that he isn’t one to “bask in my accomplishments,” adding: “I’m very weird when it comes to celebrating myself. I’m not comfortable with that. Hopefully I’ll get better.”
The words rang a little hollow on a night when the NBA prepared to honor James for the third time in the two-week span. But James said the moment that stuck out to him was seeing his daughter, Zhuri James, react live to his basket, cheering, shaking her fists and clapping excitedly.
“It’s hard for me to stop watching that because watching Zhuri’s reaction to that is, like, the greatest — it’s so cool,” he said. “If I’m having a bad day, I know exactly where I can go to fix my day.”
James also touched on his post-career plans, chuckling that he won’t play another 20 years after this season. He’s said before, slightly tongue-incheek, that he wants to own a team in Las Vegas if the NBA ever expands. But he struck an earnest tone when talking about the possibility Sunday: James, recently named a billionaire by Forbes, would be just the second former NBA player ever to own a team if he can pull it off someday.
“I see myself being a part of the game even when I’m done playing,” he said, touching on his involvement with Fenway Sports Group. “Ownership is something I’m a part of now off the court in a lot of things that I do. To be able to translate that to the game of basketball, I feel like I could give back to this game in so many fashions, even when I’m not in uniform, that could benefit the sport.
“I would love to at some point down the road own an NBA franchise and be able to bring a winning franchise to a city,” James added. “Like I said, Vegas is a really cool city, and they’re doing some great things in sports these days.”