LeBron James spent the past summer indulging in golf as his new hobby outside of basketball, but the Los Angeles Lakers star doesn’t have much time to play as of late given the team’s attempt to stay afloat.
James spent most of Year 23 playing third fiddle behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, but has been thrust back into a starring role as his co-stars are sidelined with injuries. Doncic and Reaves getting hurt came at the worst possible time as Los Angeles was playing its best basketball heading into the playoffs, so James will need to hold down the fort in their absence.
Former Lakers teammate J.R. Smith revealed that shortly after the news broke that Doncic and Reaves would miss the remainder of the season, James cancelled their round of golf together in order to lock in.
“It’s funny, he texted the group chat because it was in Dallas when he was playing, and we were supposed to play golf he’s like, ‘Man, I can’t play golf, bro, I got too much on my shoulders right now. If this was five years ago I would have definitely played,'” Smith told Yahoo Sports. “It’s tough, man. It’s always next-man-up mentality so I’m excited to see who can possibly step up for them.”
James turning down an opportunity to golf with Smith speaks to how seriously he’s treating the Lakers’ current predicament. James is no stranger to dragging a team through the postseason, but at his age and all the miles on his body it feels like an impossible task even for him.
As Smith noted, Los Angeles has no choice but to adopt a next-man-up mentality but without Doncic or Reaves there’s only so much the team can do. There’s no replacing what either star can do both from a scoring and playmaking perspective, so head coach JJ Redick will need to figure out a way to leverage the strengths of the rest of the roster.
It’s truly such terrible timing for the purple and gold as it looked like they would be able to make some serious noise. The possibility still exists, but it’s much smaller than before.
LeBron James stars as golfer in Nike Powerbeats Pro 2 commercial
James’ newfound love for golf has been well-documented as he’s enjoying the challenge of mastering a new sport. James is one of Nike’s signature athletes, so it was fun to see him star in a new commercial featuring the Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds.
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