LeBron James entered Thursday just 10 minutes from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most in regular season NBA history after having passed him in total minutes (playoffs included) last year. He’s likely to set the regular season record against the Kings. James discussed the achievement with The Athletic’s Jovan Buha and Sam Amick.
“I just think it’s just a commitment to the craft and to the passion and love I have for the game,” James said. “I don’t take much time in the off-season. A little bit more time now, I didn’t take much time in the offseason, no matter if I was making the 10 finals appearances back to back and just always trying to keep my body in tip-top shape.
“And I’ve been able to, like I said, play a lot of minutes and for the most part of my career be injury-free and be available. I don’t want to say injury-free. We all have our injuries in this league and in this sport. But to be available for the majority to my teammates, to the franchises, the three franchises I play for, is something I took very seriously.”
James has been rehabbing an injury over the past couple weeks, missing a pair of games last week. According to Buha and Amick, he’s open to resting down the line if it makes sense in the schedule.
“I’m just not a guy that likes to sit games, if I’m somewhat healthy,” James said. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just, it’s never been my thing. … If there’s an opportunity where it could benefit my body and benefit my play long-term for the better of the team, then I’m always open to having that conversation. So we’ll see what happens.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- Though the vision of creating a big three of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden ultimately didn’t work out, Harden is still giving the Clippers strong leadership and big minutes in a competitive year, Janis Carr of The Orange County Register writes. Leonard and Harden will have a chance to pair up, but the former has been out all year due to injury recovery. George, meanwhile, departed this offseason. Harden is averaging 22.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 8.3 assists while shooting 35.3% from beyond the arc. The Clippers entered Thursday at 15-12. “If he has a bad shooting night, the next night he’s probably going to come back and play well,” head coach Tyronn Lue said. “That’s what good players do. They bounce back. We’ve asked him to do a lot. He’s carried a load offensively, making the right passes, reads and also scoring the basketball. And at 35 years old, that can get tiring. So, we are asking a lot of him.“
- Current San Diego Clippers guard Elijah Harkless is drawing NBA interest ahead of the G League Showcase, SNY’s Ian Begley reports (via Twitter). He is averaging 15.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.6 steals for L.A.’s G League club. Harkless went undrafted in 2023 out of UNLV and spent back-to-back offseasons on a training camp deal with the Clippers.
- The Kings have won three of their last four games and four of their past six, but they dropped some winnable games earlier in the season and are at an uneven 13-14, good for 12th in the Western Conference. Head coach Mike Brown challenged star De’Aaron Fox to help the team continue to lock in and focus on the details, according to FOX 40 Sacramento’s Sean Cunningham (Twitter link). “Fox has to step up,” Brown said. “He’s a great player, on the verge of being a superstar…you have a lot of responsibility if you’re that guy, and he’s that guy. And he can’t be a part of not being locked in and he damn sure can’t be a part of letting it go if we’re not [locked in] as a team.“
- Dennis Schröder appeared in his first game as a member of the Warriors, starting on Thursday after being traded by the Nets. As observed by ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk (Twitter link), Jonathan Kuminga moved to the bench after starting each of the past six Golden State games.
6 rings, 6 MVPs, and Bron fans act like Bron is better than Kareem, what a joke.
Look at Kareems age 40 and age 41 seasons: starter on Finals team (1 win 1 loss). Now look at what Bron’s age 40 season looked like…yikes…
I’m not a LeBron fan at all, but he’s still impressive at 40.
No doubt, he’s for sure top 10 all-time, but if you follow basketball online you will find the most obnoxious type of poster is the “Lebron is #1 GOAT and you cant change my mind” type, which are everywhere.
I think Gsw fans have far blown by the Lbj Stan’s as most obnoxious
You can give yourself credit there tho for helping
The way that coach Kerr approaches the upcoming game against Minnesota may well define the season. The Warriors beat the Wolves 11 days ago with Draymond coming off the bench, putting Kuminga on Randle, and GP2 on Edwards. It was the last game where GSW wasn’t outcoached.
If Kerr chooses to do against Minnesota as he did tonight against Memphis (which was going small and using a 13 man rotation), reverting from what worked 12 days ago, and if GSW loses badly against Minnesota, then the criticisms in the national media tonight will be amplfied: Kerr can’t adapt to the declining games of Steph and Draymond.
Defensively, Dennis Schroder excels at guarding other PG’s, especially quick ones, at the point of attack. But Dennis weighs only 170 lbs (30 pounds less than DeAnthony Melton). Playing him with Steph means one of them has to guard 225 lb SG’s like Desmond Bane and Ant Edwards. Against Minnesota, GSW can’t hide 2 undersized guards against a giant lineup of Alexander-Walker, Ant, McDaniels, Randle and Gobert.
Memphis is as big and long as Minnesota. Tonight, even in the first half, Kerr continually put Steph in 3 guard lineups – with Waters, Buddy, Schroeder and Podz. IIRC, we ran no ball screens or pick and rolls, comtrary to indications from Kerr earlier this week, so the offense is not diversifying, even as the league’s worst defense gives up 143 and 144 points in consecutive games.
Here’s hoping Kerr has a revelation soon like he did around Jan 25 of last season. It’s not Christmas yet, and we’re in 10th place.