LeBron James “gave life” to playing with his son, an Olympic gold medal

LeBron James said Monday that the historic prospect of playing alongside oldest son Bronny on the Los Angeles Lakers has given him new life ahead of the upcoming NBA season.

James, 39, will break Vince Carter’s record of 22 NBA seasons this year, joining the Lakers after a summer in which he helped the U.S. defend its Olympic gold medal in Paris.

At some point this season, James will make NBA history by playing alongside 19-year-old son Bronny, who was selected by the Lakers with the 55th pick in June’s draft.

James, who turns 40 in December, said it was “pure joy” that gave him strength to be able to work with one of his children.

“It’s a lot of excitement and pure joy to come to work every day and work hard with my son and see him continue to grow,” James said during the Lakers’ media day at El Segundo.

“We push each other. He’s on top of me. Me at him. We push our teammates and vice versa. This is a very joyful moment not only for me, but for our family. This is truly amazing. Gives a lot of life.”

James revealed that he took a relaxed approach to showing his teenage son around the house, revealing that Bronny was as often in his bedroom playing video games as he was listening to his celebrity father’s advice.

“Honestly, if you have kids, at my age and his age, there’s not a lot of interaction on a daily basis,” James joked.

“I mean, he comes downstairs, eats, goes to his room, plays a video game. I’m there with my wife, watching a movie.

“So it’s not like, you know, ‘Meet me at the table at five o’clock. We have to discuss work tomorrow». This doesn’t happen.

“But he has been involved with basketball since birth. Obviously, I’ve been in the NBA longer than he’s been alive, so he understands the nuances of the game, even just being around the game.

“But he’s a man now and it’s time for him to learn it and become better.”

– A lot “in the tank” –

Meanwhile, James said being part of the U.S. team that won the gold medal in Paris and being part of an all-star lineup alongside stars like Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry convinced him he still had plenty left in his career. tank”.

“When you’re with 11 other amazing, great talents, some of the best talent we’ve ever seen, it gives you so much joy to be able to play this game, play at a high level,” James said.

“For me individually, to be able to go out on the field at my age, with the number of miles I had on and to be able to play at the level I was playing at, it gave me the feeling of, ‘Okay, I’ve got a lot in the tank, a lot, and I can help a big part of the team win the final “.

James added that winning the gold medal satisfied his hunger to play “meaningful basketball” again, four years after his last appearance in the 2020 NBA Finals.

“I felt damn good to be able to play meaningful basketball at the highest level,” James said, describing the hard-fought Olympic semifinal against Serbia and final against hosts France as “two games of back-to-back sevens.”

“You know that fire and desire came back to me and I thought, ‘OK, this is what it was all about. That’s why we all got together and called ourselves the Avengers.

“To feel that feeling again when you play like real basketball, every possession means something. If you make a mistake, it will burn you. It was good to relive that moment.”

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