SALT LAKE CITY — 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 on Sunday afternoon, James stressed the urgency the 27-32 Lakers 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 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 play-in 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 for the franchise, even as they sit two games out of 10th place with 23 games remaining. The Lakers had the benefit of winning their Wednesday 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 any structural problem, but has been…
Read the full article here
