LeBron James said his status on an expiring $52.6 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers will not impact his performance on the floor.
"It will have no impact," James told ESPN. "I'm super excited about the challenges and the excitement of our team. We added some new guys. We got another year under our belt with our coaching staff from last year. Got a full year with Luka [Doncic] and another year with the guys that I've been with. So super excited about that.
"And I'm not worried about contracts at this point in my career. That doesn't bother me at all. Super humbled to even have it, have a contract still and be able to play the game that I love still at this part of my career and take full advantage of it."
James said his focus is on getting his body ready to play an 82-game season.
"That's always the challenge: How can I get my body close to 100 percent? Obviously, coming off the MCL sprain last year, obviously, the foot has kind of given me a little problem from time to time throughout the course of the last few seasons. So, that's always the challenge of seeing how I can get my body as close to 100 percent where I can go out and perform at a high level. So, I'm still ramping things back up. I'm not where I want to be. But I mean, I don't want to be where I want to be right now in September. So, I got some time and I'm looking forward to the process of getting there."
James also said his mental approach and how his body responds will be monitored as he considers retirement in the future.
"For me, it's just, am I still excited about the process? Do I still get motivated about the process every single year?" James told ESPN. "Preparing my body. Preparing my mind. Working on my body, training, things of that nature, to get ready for a full season.
"I think once I kind of fall out of love with the process, then I'll know for sure. Then, it'd probably be the end for me."
heres a fun fact for how long this dude has been in my life lol lebron started playing when i was in grade 5 and next year is when my son will going into grade 5 lol lebrons been in my life longer then my own goddamn dad lol
