The Los Angeles Lakers are preparing to embark on a defense of their 2020 NBA Championship when the season kicks off later this month and LeBron James is confident that the retooled team can accomplish the feat again.
“We can [repeat]. I mean, it’s that simple,” James said on an episode of the podcast “Road Trippin’, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “We absolutely can. … First of all, it all starts with health. You have to have some luck. You have to have health. If we can stay healthy.”
James noted the additions of Dennis Schroder, Montrezl Harrell and Marc Gasol as he made his case that the Lakers are poised to capture the Larry O’Brien trophy again next season.
“We did get younger,” James said. “We have a 27-year-old point guard [in Schroder]. We got the 27-year-old Sixth Man of the Year award [winner] in Trezz. We got younger. We got Marc, who is a Defensive Player of the Year and his IQ, not only playing against him in the NBA, but also playing against him versus Spain with the national team.”
James also praised the players from last season’s championship team that have moved on to new teams this offseason.
“Being a part of a championship ballclub, no matter if you play zero minutes or you’re at 30-40 minutes, that s— all ties into one, because we all challenge each other every day,” he said.
James also spoke about the experience of first going inside the NBA bubble to complete the regular season and playoffs.
“It’s almost the same feeling as the first time you go to a haunted house,” James said. “You get excited with your friends. Your friends are telling you how great it is. And you get juiced up, juiced up and juiced up and juiced up — you really don’t realize how scary that s— is until you get inside of that haunted house. And that’s what I compare to the bubble.
“We were all excited to get back. We were excited to be playing basketball again. I mean, we stopped play in March, so we were all excited, but you don’t really know what you’re getting yourself into until you get inside of the bubble and they tell you, ‘That right there, you cannot go outside that gate.'”
