LeBron James hasn’t spoken much publicly since signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, making his first statements earlier this week at the opening of his I Promise School in Akron, Ohio.
Where we’ve seen James the most since making his move to L.A. official has been on the grassroots basketball circuit, watching as LeBron James Jr. led his teams to some big wins in Las Vegas for the conclusion of the season. LeBron was a regular courtside, and sometimes would even hop in layup lines with the North Coast Blue Chips, to root on Bronny and company.
However, LeBron is far from just a casual observer as a basketball dad and sometimes pops in to give the team some encouragement or advice. One such instance of LeBron delivering a motivational speech to Bronny’s squad was caught on video and shows James imploring the team to understand their role and embrace it, whatever it may be, to help the team win.
Given that the Blue Chips went on to take home the championship in their Las Vegas tournament, it seems the message from James got through. This is the level-headed, focused version of Dan Hawkins’ “go play intramurals, brother” rant.
What will be more interesting is if the Lakers are willing to be responsive to the same kind of speech when LeBron comes in this season and everyone on that team has to adjust to a new role, from the young guys to the veterans they’ve just signed.
