LeBron James might be the greatest player of his generation, but that has never stopped him from looking around at the rest of the NBA and seeing what he can do to keep the league healthy. A lot of times that’s simply him participating in events like the All-Star Game draft, the NBA Awards show, or just being a present figure in the public. Behind the scenes, though, there’s a side of James that many don’t see. A mentorship that isn’t available to everyone, but when James takes a liking to you he’s willing to shed some wisdom on those who will listen.
We’ve seen it in the past with Kyrie Irving. James took a liking to the young star during his early days in Cleveland and there’s a good chance that Irving played a part in James eventual desire to return to the Cavaliers. Now with the Lakers, James is surrounded mainly by veterans but that doesn’t mean he can’t still try to mentor young players when given the opportunity. We saw some of this mentorship on Sunday following the Lakers 122-114 victory over the Lakers when James took time after the game to speak to Zion Williamson.
James doesn’t like to reveal what he tells these young players in these mid-court meetings, but when he was asked about it postgame he used the opportunity to talk about how he feels that mentoring these rising stars throughout the NBA is part of his job as a veteran star.
On his words to Zion, LeBron says he thinks it’s his responsibility to mentor: “Anybody that says, ‘LeBron, why would he do that while he’s playing? He’s showing signs of weakness, he’s buddy-buddy with these guys he’s going against.’ Tell em to kiss my ass. With a smile, too.” pic.twitter.com/pKSSiU5OrN
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) March 2, 2020
“It’s my obligation, it’s my job to continue to pass on the game to the guys that are coming after me. Nobody told me to do that, but it feels like it’s my responsibility to leave the game in a better place than when I had it. When you see the class of guys that’s in our league right now. I mentioned Ja last night, you mentioned Zion tonight, you see Trae Young, you see Luka Doncic, you see Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, you just see all these young guys. The league is in a very good place. If I’m able to give my wisdom on the game and pass it down while I’m playing or after I’m playing I feel like it’s my job because the game has given me so much.”
It’s great to see James take on a mentorship role like this late in his career, because as he said it’s not something he had to do. There’s nobody in James’ ear telling him that if he doesn’t mentor young players he’s being a bad star or it will lessen his chances at being seen as the greatest of all time. This is something he has chosen to do because it’s who he is as a person and as a player. That kind of stuff is great to see, especially for a player like Williams.
