LeBron Speaks: His Current Motivation and Off-Season Additions | Lakers Media Day 2025

LeBron Speaks: His Current Motivation and Off-Season Additions | Lakers Media Day 2025

Hey LeBron, what’s going on? So coming off an AllNBA season, right? Kind of completely unprecedented to be either asked or thinking about retirement, the word, how you go into a season. These two things have never happened. It’s never there’s never been a year 23 player. How do you square all that still playing at this level, but you know, closer to the end than the beginning, right? I mean, I don’t know. I mean, I’m excited about today. I’m excited about the opportunity to be able to play the game that I love for another season. And um you know, I’m whatever the journey, however the journey, you know, lays out this year, I’m just like super invested because I like you just said, I don’t don’t know when the end is, but I know it’s a lot sooner than later. So, you know, just, you know, being super appreciative of the fact that I could come up here, do another media day, and talk to you guys and do all the stuff around here. So, just excited about the journey and whatever, you know, this year has in store for me. LeBron, along those lines, um you’ve said a version of that in this room a couple of times where, you know, you don’t really know what’s going to come next. You don’t know when when you’re going to feel that it’s been enough. What are what are the things that are still pushing you to keep do to keep doing this? And you does it feel closer um you know, or does it sort of feel like the same feeling as when you enter year 22 and year 21? Yeah, I mean the things that still push me is the fact that I the love of the game is still high. Um the love of the process is even higher. Um so that’s what continues to push me to to play this game. I mean, I mean, it’s really that that simple, you know, me training and working on my body and trying to get my body as close to 100% as possible every year is something that’s like um it’s a beautiful thing for me, you know, and just continue to challenge and see how well I can, you know, push myself to, you know, play the game at a high level, recover at a high level, be able to sleep better, um mentally prepare, try to stay sharp throughout the course of a long season. And just like the the roller coaster of an NBA season is that’s all like gratifying towards me uh to me no matter the the good, the bad, the ugly. Like I I love that process. So I think that’s all it’s all it’s a bigger so much that goes into it, you know, more than just, you know, picking up a basketball and shooting it at the rim. LeBron Brad Turner from the LA Times. How you doing, Brad? Nice to meet you. Back again. Um how much does having a young partner like Luca weigh in your decision and your future going forward? Say it again. How much does having a young partner like Luca, a Savant basketball player, how much will that weigh into your decision as you go forward with this season? Uh, as far as how long I go in my career? How long you been in your career? Right. N zero. Um, the motivation to be able to play alongside him every night. That’s super motivating. That’s what I’m going to train my body for, you know, every night that I go out there and try to be the best player I can for him. And we going we gonna bounce that off one another. But as far as me uh weighing in on, you know, him and some of my other teammates of how far I go in my career now, it would be literally my decision along with my wife and, you know, two of my boys already gone. Well, one of them is somewhere around here. Yeah. Uh Brian, uh Bryce is down there in Tucson, so he’s out the house. So, it’ll be a decision between, you know, me, my wife, and and my daughter. Like, that’s not even it won’t be, hey, having a meeting with my teammates. It won’t be that. Took me a to win. Oh, hi. Took me a win with the LA Times. Speaking to those teammates this year, what were some of your initial reactions to adding someone like Marcus, adding someone like DeAndre to this team this year? Yeah. And Jake, you know, um you know, just adding, you know, those three guys, you know, competing against those guys for years. And obviously, we know, you know, the the the matchups that I had with with Marcus over the year, especially when we was in the Eastern Conference, him and Boston, me and Cleveland, and just all those matchups that we had. Happy to have him. I know what he brings to the game. I know, you know, that team is first, second, third, fourth, fifth when it comes to Marcus Smart, you know, adding a a big guy like Da um his skill set, um is very high. Um his athleticism is high and um so I think he adds another dynamic to our team along with Jackson know that’d be a great one-two punch at our center position. And then adding a wing like Jake, you know, a big wing who can shoot the ball, can handle the ball, but his toughness um uh sneaky athletic as well. Um is going to be great for our for our ball club. And I’m just happy to looking forward to seeing how it how it comes together, you know, and the best thing about it, we have a full we have a full year starting off at training camp, you know. Um I think that’s going to be very good for our ball club. Um you know, going into this year. Kobe Price SoCal News Group. When we spoke with JJ on Thursday, um he was asked about you, Luca, and Austin, you know, the chemistry working together. He uh mentioned a meeting he had with Shawn McVey. Um he mentioned utility plays as a takeaway from the conversation. and you know, plays where you guys can all be involved together. What can a preseason and training camp do for the chemistry for you guys? And where’s the excitement level of you guys, I guess, furthering that chemistry, furthering development? No, I just think it’s about time. Um, the more and more time that we we’re together, the better we’re going to be. And I think just having it start from day one. You know, obviously, you know, us grabbing Luca, whenever that that time period was, um, it took us all, you know, time to to transition into how we wanted to play as a team, as individuals, whatever the case may be. you know, having day one, you know, and the coaching staff having another year under their belt on how we all can complement each other, uh, play at our play with our our strengths, play to the team, um, and be able to, you know, you know, not, you know, be looking to see who can make the play, but all of us figuring out how we can make plays together, you know, and I think it’s going to be beneficial to us, um, having that, um, that chemistry from day one, which we will have because of, you know, how we was able to finish the season off last year. LeBron over here. Jim Hill, KKL9 News to your right. Jim, what’s up? Good to see you. How you doing? Good luck this year. No, thank you. Where and how did you develop the passion that you have? And you mentioned that word before several times. Yeah. Where and how did you develop a passion that you have for this game? Uh well, I mean it it started when I was super duper young and um it literally got me out of like the situation I was in. meaning like like sports has done so much for all of us obviously, but I mean I can speak to to to me as a 8-year-old kid to be put into sports and get out of the inner city and get out of the the ghetto at the time, you know, it gave me like I could get away from reality for two, three, four hours. you know, being on the basketball court as a 8-year-old kid and running around and enjoying it with, you know, guys that I just met or being on the football field and being able to just to, you know, feel the breeze of, you know, the air and and being able to have competition and and, you know, maybe even letting some anger out on the football field because of what you got going on, you know, in in your regular life. So like I think the passion kind of started there and then when you put in the work and you start seeing the results uh of of things happen I think that also creates it more and more and more over the years. Um and uh I think it just it just stuck with me. You know I’ve always wanted to be I guess when I decided that I wanted to make this basketball thing real and uh I I figured out that I had a lot of talent. I figured out I had the uh the demeanor and the passion for it. I was like, I just want to put everything into it to try to be the greatest that I can possibly be for me, you know, and I think it all it all just tied in, you know, over the course of the years. LeBron, last season at this time, you were talking about how the Olympics opened up a a memory of competing at a certain level. Um, was there something this off season that maybe gave you a similar reflection or opened up another revelation about this next chapter for you? Um, I just I think the the chapter of just competition and and how hard it is to to prepare for a season. Um, if you look at the the landscape of our of our of our offseason in our league, you can see some of the acquisitions that’s happened all over the all over our league and especially in the Western Conference, you know, the Western Conference is super tough, super competitive, and um, and that’s great. I mean, I we we wouldn’t want it any other way to be able to go out and compete versus some of the best teams, best clubs, best personnels that you have every single night and and understand like what you’re playing for, you know. So, um yeah, I mean, you know, I watched a lot of the Euro basket uh you know, games this this off obviously a lot reason was because uh you know, Luca was playing. I was seeing what he was doing with his with Slovenia and things of that nature. But, you know, just the love of the game and u the passion for it just gets me excited. Uh LeBron, when when you opted into your contract this year, your agent released a statement saying that you were looking to compete for championships, evaluating the roster, stuff like that. Um the competitive level, it sounds like you feel pretty good about it, but is that the case that you feel pretty good about the way the roster’s shaped up this year? Yeah, I’m excited about uh getting to work and uh I’m excited about to see what we can do. Hey, Braun. A couple years ago, you said you enter every single season with something to prove. Uh, presumably last season it was playing alongside Bronnie. What do you want to prove this season? And is there a chance that you would hold on to play alongside Bryce? Um, as far as prove, I just think for me personally, just trying to go out there and just uh, you know, be the best player I can be every night. both uh you know as far as my game but also just mentally uh just staying you know present and things of that nature like um you know knowing that the the in is u is soon you know not taking for granted you know uh Tuesday night in a city that maybe I don’t want to be in that night but like seriously like let’s lock in and because you don’t know how many times you get the opportunity to play the game you know or to be able to compete um you know so you know there’s times where you wake up and you just feel like you just don’t have it you know So those will be the days where I know I can lock back in real fast like okay well you won’t have many days like this you know so let’s lock in and enjoy the moment enjoy the rest of the ride. So um that that’s the exciting thing about it and understanding like you know how present I can be and how present I will be. Um I am not I’m not sitting here. No I’m not I’m not waiting on Bryce. No I don’t know what his time I don’t know what his timeline is. He’s he’s his own young man now. like he’s down in Tucson. We’ll see what happens this year, next year, you know, but he has his own timeline. I got my timeline and I don’t know if they quite match up, but we’ll see. Hey, LeBron, it feels like over here. Sorry. Okay. Um, it feels like so much of the discourse about you heading into this season and also even to a degree heading into last season was about your age and about people’s sort of expectations or like what someone could hypothetically do at that age. And it does sort of feel like that discourse is a little bit divorced from the actual product you put on the floor last year and the level that you’re still playing at. I’m wondering what that experience is like for you like hearing that discourse and knowing I guess how much you still have shown you have left in the tank. Yeah, I mean it’s it’s pretty cool to like um I don’t know just to know how many miles I got as far as this game in my 22 years now starting 23 years and um to still be able to play at a high level. Um to be still be able to go out there and can make plays and uh be respectable on the floor. Um, you know, it’s a it’s it’s it takes I mean it’s just super humbling and gratifying for me personally. I love to play the game and I love to play at a high level. And um for me age is kind of just a number, but it’s all it is reality too though. I mean, you look at the history of the game, it’s not been many guys at my age or especially going in the year 23 that’s been able to play at a level like that. And um I’ll just try to not take it for granted and just try to get the game as much as I can inspire whoever I can. The younger generation, my generation, the generation after me, the generation to come and just like, you know, I think you are of age is what you I guess tell your mind you are. And I’m around a lot of young guys. I’m around a 10-year-old daughter who’s running through the house all day every day screaming. I was my I got 18year-old son who’s in Tucson. He see him on Tik Tok dancing with his mom and his sister. And my 20-year-old is right over there turning 21 in a week. Like, how could I not feel young? And then I mean, my wife is beautiful. I look good. I mean, I look at my age as like the wine that I drink. The older I the older wine I drink, the better it is. What’s up, BT? Uh, so like I feel great. I mean, I don’t know. I sleep well, I guess. Last question, Braun. Uh, in previous media days, you’ve said that there’s always like one skill or or thing that you focus on trying to improve over the summer. What was your focus this my golf swing? That’s the one skill I was trying to improve this summer. Look better. Uh, um, I don’t know. Probably my I spent a lot of time on my catch and shoot uh three-pointers. um you probably seen a couple videos either me reposting me working out with Chris Johnson um you know during my summer workouts understanding like um how can I make the most of when I don’t have the ball either you know moving um you know moving into space you know obviously Luca and AR going to do a lot of time of handling the ball we got Marcus Smart now who going to handle the ball Gabe Bronnie when he get his opportunity to handle the ball we have a lot of guys that can handle the ball um so how can I still be effective you know on a on a on a team where I don’t have handle the ball as much. I’ll handle the ball as well. But I guess I just did a lot of I did a lot of everything, but I did shoot a lot more catch and shoot threes just wanting to be ready. You know, my my OG Otis Carter always told me if you stay ready, you never got to get ready. And it’s literally that simple. So that’s what uh that’s what I try to do this summer. All right. Appreciate it, guys.

LeBron James talks with the media about his current motivation as well as the off-season roster additions.

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