Lakers star LeBron James is getting closer to the career scoring record, but there’s plenty of motivation for him to keep playing after he passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In an interview with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, James, who recently turned 38, reiterated that he’s determined to stay in the NBA until his oldest son arrives, which would be the 2024/25 season at the earliest.
“I need to be on the floor with my boy, I got to be on the floor with Bronny,” he said. “Either in the same uniform or a matchup against him. I don’t mean like [guarding one another all game] — because he’s a point guard and I’m a, at this point now I’m playing center or whatever the team needs from me. But I would love to do the whole Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. thing. That would be ideal for sure.”
James is also determined to lift the Lakers back into title contention. He said individual records don’t mean much to him anymore, citing his decision to sit out the final five games of last season with an ankle injury, which prevented him from qualifying for the scoring title.
“I want to win. [The losing is] not sitting well with me,” James said. “I don’t like having accomplishments, and it don’t feel right, when it comes in a losing effort. … So as we sit here right now as a franchise and as a team that’s below .500 — we’ve been playing some good basketball as of late, but we want to and I want to win at the highest level. Breaking records or setting records or passing greats in a losing effort has never been a DNA of mine.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Cody Zeller is among the free agents who have worked out for the Lakers recently, Marc Stein tweets. The longtime Hornets center held his audition when L.A. visited Charlotte last week, according to Stein.
- The Clippers continue to be careful with the health of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but a five-game losing streak may bring some urgency to the team, per Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports. L.A. was so thoroughly outplayed Thursday in Denver that coach Tyronn Lue benched his starters for the entire second half.
- Mikal Bridges still hasn’t missed a game in his NBA career, but the Suns forward may be wearing down as he tries to compensate for injured teammates, observes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Bridges had a wrap on his right knee Friday as Phoenix dropped its fifth game in a row. “Just makes us stay together even more,” Bridges said of the losing skid. “That’s what we’ve got to do. It’s easy when you win to stay together. So our true selves is going to show when we’re losing. We just keep fighting. I think you stay together more as a team when you lose. That’s going to show if you’re a really good team or not and I think we have that.”
Problem with that comparison is Griffey SR was really good and some would say great. Griffey JR was undoubtedly one of the best
LeBron is undoubtedly great. Is Bronnie going to even get drafted and/or spend 3 years in the league?
League is full of dudes that have no business being in the league as long as they have been. The comp only goes so far as it’s never been done in the NBA and it’s only been done by the Griffeys and I think Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe in the 4 major sports.
Lakers probably hoping Bronnie isn’t drafted so they can sign him as a free agent.
Hilarious that George and Leonard didn’t play in the second half of the Denver game and were still ‘rested’ the next.
Lebron James will not play with his son. Things will happen, maybe injuries, maybe life, maybe something else, but James will not play with his son. First time also I’ve heard James capitulate that he may not be able to make it to the team that drafts Bronny, and he’ll settle for playing against Bronny, if on another team. Sounds like doubt to me. I doubt it extremely. Long way to go still.
Try being an optimist one day, it’s quite nice.
I’m not a James fan club member, so I call it as I see it. To a fanatic with no real strategic sense for the game of NBA basketball, and the fringe aspects such as building a team, and all the adversity that seem to arise on the road toward building a contender, I’d call myself a realist. You can insult me all you want, but its basically a character assessment of yourself.