Lebron James is the type of player who refuses to sit out games for fans who paid tickets to see him. That was not the case in the last two weeks though as the Los Angeles Lakers star missed his team’s games against the Portland Trailblazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The surprising part about it is he and the people around him thought it was an easy decision to not play in those two games.
This is because his body needs it.
James had a full eight-day rest by siting out those games which the Lakers said was for personal reasons and to recover from foot injury.
He said it became easy for him to take a rest because of the availability of a good schedule.
I mean it’s very rare, to be honest, if you can get a break in the schedule like that. So it was a very easy decision for myself and for the team and for my trainer to be able to take advantage of those days just for everything. So, it was great.
He said he also used the eight-day break to work on his mentals about the season.
I had an opportunity to take more days and get my mind, body and everything where I wanted it to be for tonight. And it worked out.
The decision turned out good as he played a solid game in win against the surging Memphis Grizzlies, recording 18-8-8. His tenacity on the defensive end also returned as he had one steal and two blocks.
His partner Anthony Davis was also sensational with 40 points and 16 rebounds. Before James went out for personal time, they combined for 77 points in loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Austin Reaves, who was also out for a time, contributed 19 points and had the same number of assists as James.
Lebron James says foot injury is not fully healed yet
James ran like he was in his 20s again against the younger Grizzlies. He chased blocks, he led fastbreaks.
It might not have shown in the game but James said his foot recovery is not yet complete.
It’s an everyday thing. It’s been lingering for the last few years, but I was able to do a lot of great things to reassure not only that, but I got kneed in the quad in the Atlanta game at the end of regulation by (Anthony Davis), that’s now back to 100 percent. Probably three days ago it was still pretty sore. But I’m able to get that back to 100 (percent), so that was great, so I was able to hit a lot of other elements as well.
James would love the next three days as the Lakers won’t play until Thursday against the Sacramento Kings.
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1 Comment
LeBron should just retired for the sake of his health. He is now quite old to play the type of basketball he used to play. This is also for the Lakers’ good as they cannot afford to be a losing franchise. Besides LeBron cannot duplicate Kobe Bryant’s role as the ultimate leader of this team.