Every team enters each season with the goal of winning the NBA Championship. That is certainly the case for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, especially as the all-time great is entering his 23rd NBA season looking to win his fifth ring.
Of course, actually getting to the NBA Finals, let alone winning it, is no easy task. It takes a major level of commitment and sacrifice from the players and LeBron recently spoke about how much sacrifice is necessary in order to win that ring on the latest episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash:
“Listen, the only way to win a championship is that everybody is MVP in their role and able to sacrifice their own personal stats, personal beliefs for the betterment of the team. There’s a pecking order in our team. You guys know who the stars is. You guys know who the role players are. You guys know who the garbage guys are who come in and do all the garbage work, first to the floor, taking the charges, doing those things. You guys know who the vocal leaders is. You know who the silent assassins are. When that thing is met and it’s laid out, not only by the coaches. You see, the problem with our league sometimes is that players are always looking for the coaches to make those things happen. It’s the players in the locker room that hold each other accountable, that’s when you get the best team. When guys can come to the locker room and hold each other accountable and know how to talk to each other, I’m bad mouthing you or you said something to me and not take it personal because we have one common goal and that’s to win a championship. When you win a championship, everybody eats. Everybody gets paid, everybody’s seen, everybody’s loved and that’s the only thing that only matters. But it can only happen, the coaching staff can only do so much. The coaching staff gon put your game plan together, they gonna tell you this is what we need to do, this is how we gonna execute. We’re gonna give you the game plan. But the f—ing players gotta go out and do your job. And when the players hold each other accountable, that’s when the job gets done and that has happened four times in my career, I’ve been able to win four championships and that was one of the number one ingredients, obviously going out and getting the job done too, but just holding each other accountable.”
As was just seen in the 2025 NBA Finals it was players like former Lakers guard Alex Caruso, Andrew Nembhard, Lu Dort and Aaron Nesmith who were crucial in the that excellent series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. That was also the case during the 2020 NBA Championship when LeBron led the Lakers to as Rajon Rondo, Dwight Howard, Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope played big roles in that ring.
As James noted, every player must be an MVP in their role, no matter what that role is. Sometimes players feel they can do more, but that is what is needed in order for the team as a whole to work.
Four teams contacted Rich Paul with interest in trading for Lakers’ LeBron James
The question hanging over the head of LeBron James now is whether he will be playing for the Lakers next season. His agent Rich Paul made it clear that LeBron hasn’t asked for a trade, but did reveal that four teams have contacted him about potentially trading for the Lakers superstar.
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