LOS ANGELES – LeBron James and Anthony Davis will take to the court in Wednesday’s preseason game against the Phoenix Suns, marking their first NBA action since winning the championship, the Los Angeles Lakers coach said Tuesday, Frank Vogel.
“I plan to play AD and LeBron for a few minutes into the first half, but just to ‘get my feet wet,'” Vogel said in a video conference with reporters.
James, who turns 36 later this month, signed a two-year, $ 85 million extension this offseason and Davis, 27, signed a five-year, $ 190 million deal to stay in Los Angeles while they look to defend the title. of the Lakers.
Both James and Davis sat down in the Lakers’ first two preseason games against the LA Clippers to rest. The team is easing the couple’s workload after training camp opened just seven weeks after the Lakers finished off the Miami Heat at the Finals Game 6 of the NBA on October 11.
“I just want to see them come out and try to get a rhythm,” Vogel said. “Let them get comfortable with some of their new teammates. We’ve been trying to intentionally monitor every day the amount of work those guys are doing after the shortest offseason ever and that won’t be enough. Different with these guys. two upcoming preseason games. “
The Lakers open the season in a week, on December 22 against the Clippers, and then host Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day.
James told reporters that with the offseason additions of Dennis Schroder and Marc Gasol as playmakers, he will not necessarily reprise his role as point guard for the 2020-21 Lakers, after leading the league in assists last season for the first time. time in his career. .
“Every year a challenge is presented,” James said in a video conference Tuesday. “So if I come across as the top ball handler and also try to lead the league in assists or to make sure I’m ahead of the game to get the guys involved, then I can take that responsibility in every action. If we are the team. You don’t need that this year, so that’s absolutely fine too. “
His charity, the LeBron James Family Foundation, did a great help to his hometown community in Akron, Ohio on Tuesday by announcing the initiative of the House Thirty Three. The effort will create a holistic center for community development where families can seek financial literacy, job training, and find ample space for group gatherings, all under one roof.
“We listen to our children, we listen to our families and what their needs are and we are just not settling for what we have done in the past,” James said. “We want to continue growing and we believe that House Three Thirty is the next step in providing the future for our children and our families.”
Effort is an extension of I Promise School, which LJFF opened in 2018, and enhanced with housing opportunities and access to community centers since then, to further support the at-risk students the charity intends to help.
“My mother was literally one of those parents. I come from a single parent home. I come from downtown. We come from not long,” James said. “My mom didn’t work. She was the only mother. She was 16 years old, she walked Central High School In Akron, Ohio, she was pregnant when she was a sophomore in high school. And then, unfortunately, my grandmother passed away when I was 3 years old. My mom was 19 years old. So we just passed, I guess you would say hell and we went back. But we never waver. “
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