Twenty-two seasons into an iconic career, LeBron James remains addicted to the game’s most pressure-filled moments. The glitz of the regular season doesn’t move him anymore, but come springtime James is still all in.
“It’s definitely a drug, for sure,” LeBron told Steve Nash during the latest episode of Mind the Game, his basketball-centric podcast. “I mean, the regular season is fun. It’s cool. Alright. But I just only care about playoffs.”
Now 40 years old and still playing at an All-NBA level, James continues to push the limits of longevity. This year, he’s chasing postseason glory again, only this time with a different kind of co-star in Luka Doncic.
Playoff time
The midseason blockbuster that shocked the basketball world when the Lakers acquired Doncic from Dallas wasn’t just about adding talent. It was about reigniting LeBron‘s title window one more time.
And make no mistake, LeBron knows the magnitude of this moment. In his mind, the playoffs are where the real stories of the league are written.
James himself engineered one of the greatest comebacks in sports history when his Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit to stun the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. We’ve seen an eighth-seeded Miami Heat reach the Finals. The playoffs, as James noted, are the one stage where “anything can happen” isn’t just a hopeful cliche.
“It’s the atmosphere, it’s the preparation, it’s the mental focus,” James explained. “There’s nothing like it. I’ve been chasing that feeling for 22 years.”
Still, while the king continues to chase his postseason fix, there’s a growing sense that the next phase of his life is just around the corner. Not a final farewell, but a passing of the torch-to his son, Bronny James, who’s eyeing his own path to the NBA.
LeBron has been open about his dream to share the court with Bronny, even saying he’d “do whatever it takes” to make it happen.
That could mean a change in scenery, a veteran’s minimum deal, or a move away from Los Angeles altogether. For now, though, he remains locked in, chasing another banner with Doncic and the Lakers.