In his 23rd NBA season, LeBron James continued to defy all logic and play at an All-Star caliber level for the Los Angeles Lakers. There were some concerns about how he would hold up, especially considering he missed the first 14 games of the season because of injury. But once he got on the court, it was still the status quo for the future Hall of Famer.
While his counting stats were down, James had multiple games where he showed he is still one of the elite players in the league, not to mentioning altering his role for the Lakers in order to allow Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves to take on the primary creation duties. This wasn’t lost on Lakers coach JJ Redick, who made it clear that he feels James didn’t just have a great year, but a remarkable one.
“It’s a daily commitment,” Redick said of what James does in order to stay in shape and play at this level. “You probably have to ask him exactly what it was, but I know there’s things that he’s cut out from his diet and there’s things that he’s done more of to get his body ready. I think it was really frustrating for him not to be there day one of training camp. It was really frustrating for him to not be there on opening night. He played in 60 of the 68 remaining games and he played in a bunch of back-to-backs.
“He had, not a good season, not a great, he had a remarkable season all things considered. You take away the fact that he’s in his 23rd year and he’s 41 years old, he had a remarkable season. The fact that those things are real, and they’re very real in terms of the day-to-day management, it’s unbelievable what he did this year.”
It seemed like once a week, James was making some sort of history and there were numerous times throughout this year in which he led this Lakers team to victory. As Redick noted, once James was healthy he suited up in nearly every game for the Lakers and that takes a ton of commitment and work to make that happen.
James’ All-NBA streak will come to an end this year as he is ineligible for awards due to playing only 60 games, meaning he won’t be on an All-NBA team for the first time since his rookie season. But make no mistake, the level that James has played at this year remains unprecedented for nearly any athlete in any sport.
Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves won’t be ready at start of playoffs for Lakers
After taking a backseat, the Lakers now need James to return to the role he has played for his entire basketball life as the primary creator for the team. Unfortunately, neither Doncic nor Reaves will be healthy when the team kicks off it’s first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets.
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