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LeBron James will as soon as once more be the oldest participant within the NBA this season, and his new head coach had jokes about his age catching as much as him on Thursday.
J.J. Redick mentioned James wouldn’t play on Thursday resulting from relaxation and in addition had a quip about his star participant.
“DNP – Previous. … Taking it out of Pop’s e-book,” Redick mentioned, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, who additionally reported that “a supply aware of James’ plans confirmed to ESPN that the ahead is not going to play in L.A.’s preseason finale Friday towards the Golden State Warriors.”
Although James can be 40 in December, he is continued to defy the legal guidelines of growing old.
In his twenty first season final 12 months, he performed 72 video games, probably the most he has performed in a season because the 2017-18 season when he performed all 82 video games. He put up 25.7 factors, 8.3 assists and seven.3 rebounds per recreation and led the Lakers to a 47-35 file and a playoff look, the place they misplaced to the Denver Nuggets within the first spherical.
James has performed restricted minutes in three preseason video games to this point and it is not a lot of a shock to see him sit out of the Lakers’ remaining preseason video games as he appears to get his physique as a lot relaxation as potential earlier than an extended season.
It is unclear how far more James has in him earlier than he calls it a profession, however he appears to be able to have one other productive season this 12 months to proceed including to his prolonged resume.
One other title would do wonders for his standing within the GOAT dialog, however it is going to be robust. The West is as soon as once more stacked this 12 months with sturdy groups just like the defending Western Convention champion Dallas Mavericks, a workforce on the rise within the Minnesota Timberwolves and a younger workforce trying to show itself within the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
If followers have realized something over the previous twenty years, it is {that a} James-led workforce is all the time a contender, and he’ll look to show that to be true as soon as once more this 12 months.
