{"id":211900,"date":"2025-10-14T04:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211900\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T04:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:51:07","slug":"lakers-lebron-james-decision-backed-by-nba-legend-charles-barkley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211900\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers’ LeBron James Decision Backed by NBA Legend Charles Barkley"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James<\/a> missed the first couple of preseason games for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the trend isn\u2019t expected to conclude this year.<\/p>\n

Late last week, it was reported that James is dealing with a sciatica injury. As a result, he\u2019s expected to miss the Lakers\u2019 six-game preseason schedule and isn\u2019t expected to be on the court for LA at the start of the regular season. That will mark a first in LeBron\u2019s career. <\/p>\n

In the eyes of the NBA legend Charles Barkley, the Lakers are rightfully playing LeBron\u2019s situation safe.<\/p>\n

\"LeBron<\/p>\n

Apr 30, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) moves to the basket against Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle (30) during the first half in game five of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images \/ Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no problem with a guy being that old sitting out,\u201d Barkley explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not going to gain anything in the preseason. LeBron has paid his dues way beyond what he\u2019s done for the NBA,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cThe Lakers, they just got to stay healthy for the playoffs. Doesn\u2019t matter what they accomplish during the regular season or anything like that. What is he gonna accomplish playing 20 minutes in the preseason? There\u2019s no need to play at his age. Preseason is great for young guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many NBA stars use the preseason to get their feet wet ahead of a long season, Barkley doesn\u2019t believe the limited action for conditioning purposes is worth the gamble for a player like LeBron. Instead, the Hall of Famer believes the Lakers need to utilize the time for the younger guys looking to stick around in the league, and the bench unit that needs to be developed.<\/p>\n

Clearly, LeBron James puts in enough work in the offseason to maintain a high level of conditioning. Outside of a few seasons, LeBron is typically known to play in at least 70 games throughout the year. Last season, he played in 70, averaging 34.9 minutes per game. The veteran superstar produced 24.4 points per game while shooting 51 percent from the field. <\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the Lakers know what LeBron brings to the table. His availability in the spring will be much more important than in the fall. The Lakers are competing for a championship run, and they\u2019ll need their 40-year-old All-Star to feel as healthy as possible if and when they get there. <\/p>\n

Just as Barkley stated while discussing the state of the Western Conference, the Lakers fall into a small bucket of teams that are viewed as \u201cchampionship or bust\u201d every single season. Their success will depend on what LeBron and Luka Doncic can bring to the table. <\/p>\n

More Fastbreak on SI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James missed the first couple of preseason games for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the trend isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-211900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}