![]() “If I’m having a bad day, I know exactly where I can go to fix my day.” “It’s hard for me to stop watching that because watching Zhuri’s reaction to that is, like, the greatest – it’s so cool,” he said. Lakers aim to keep starting lineup intact after season of uncertainty But James said the moment that stuck out to him was seeing his daughter, Zhuri James, react live to his basket, cheering, shaking her fists and clapping excitedly. The words rang a little hollow on a night when the NBA prepared to honor James for the third time in the two-week span since the milestone. During his press conference, James claimed that he isn’t one to “bask in my accomplishments,” adding: “I’m very weird when it comes to celebrating myself. It was less than two weeks ago when James became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in a game against Oklahoma City, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “We’re sitting up here talking about the record and things of that nature, and that’s all cool, but I’m more passionate about trying to make the postseason and give ourselves a chance to compete for another Larry O’Brien Trophy.” “I don’t want to see myself not being part of the postseason for two years straight – it’s just not part of my DNA,” he said. James has never missed back-to-back postseasons – and he doesn’t plan to. ![]() While the undeniable peak of his five-year Lakers stint is the 2020 championship when he won Finals MVP, James has missed the playoffs twice in his previous four seasons, and the Lakers didn’t advance out of the first round in 2021. James previously staked his belief that he would be back in the NBA’s postseason nearly a year ago, as he watched the playoffs from home: “I can/will NOT miss the postseason again for my career! This (expletive) HURT.” By the end of December, with the Lakers struggling in the standings, he had quietly deleted the tweet.īut James, who went to eight consecutive Finals and made nine of them in a 10-year span, knows he’s being judged on the end of his career. … The most important thing for me right now is to maintain my health and be available to my teammates after this break because we have to make a strong push if we want to do anything special.” I’m going to try not to go too crazy in the (All-Star) game. “This couple of days has helped, not having to stress it being out on the floor,” he said. ![]() James said he would strive to be available in each of the final 23 games to make sure the Lakers make it to the playoffs. The getaway was a break for his foot as well. He spent several days with his wife, Savannah James, on a retreat, including a trip to Antelope Canyon in Arizona. 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 painful and required close monitoring. The time off, however, might be best for James. “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 worst thing for us is that we had to go on a break,” he said. 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 team’s trades – most prominently landing 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 have been scrapping since the beginning of the season (following a 2-10 start) and haven’t even been in a play-in position (seeds 7-10) for most of the season. 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 been looking up at most of the league from near the bottom of the standings.
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