LeBron James, a 19-time All-Star small forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, managed to leave quite an impression on rookie two-way players Scotty Pippen Jr. and Cole Swider despite playing in his 20th NBA season.
While the two were competing for LA’s Summer League squad in Las Vegas, Pippen made an appearance on Swider’s podcast by the same name, The Cole Swider Show. They talked about a wide range of subjects, but focused particularly on what they had discovered about James’ routine and the extent of his fame.
When it came time to award its two-way contracts this summer, LA decided to part ways with both players. Instead, the Lakers made the decision to sign ex-Florida combo forward Alex Fudge, ex-Missouri shooting guard D’Moi Hodge, and ex-All-SEC First Team Florida centre Colin Castleton to their three two-way contracts over the offseason.
For Pippen and Swider to find their next NBA opportunity, they will need to go beyond the box. Los Angeles still has two free roster spaces that it could theoretically fill, but it looks like the Lakers want to fill their 14th standard roster position with a centre before leaving their 15th spot available for the 2023–24 season.
This is what Swider said about Lebron James incredible fitness
Swider said “It was hard for me to believe that he actually puts $1.5 million into his body every single year but I can see it now,” “I feel like people just see LeBron, they just think he is who he is,” . “Like he was born that way. They don’t actually think he puts in that much work… He does that s*** every single day.” “A lot of people get that confused, even after the games, he’s still on his s***,” Pippen continued.
“He’s always on his routine. Like, if you throw him off his routine… he’ll hold the plane up [if] he don’t get the ice inside, you know what I’m saying? But seeing his approach to the game was definitely eye-opening to me.” “Like Scotty said, his overall approach to the game is just unbelievable. At this point in his career not even the on-the-court work, to me it’s the sleep, it’s the diet, it’s the recovery boots no matter where we are. We’ll be in [the] film [room] for 30 minutes and he has his recovery boots on. It’s like every single minute is taken advantage of. And then he’s pointing out every single play on the film with the recovery boots on!”
James is expected to make $99 million over the course of the next two seasons with LA. If he chooses not to opt out of the last year of his contract next summer, he will be 40 and in the midst of his 22nd NBA season when he becomes available for free agency again. The effectiveness of his investment in his physical maintenance is demonstrated by his incredible productivity at this late stage of his career.
He played in 55 healthy games throughout the course of the 2022–23 regular season, averaging 28.9 points on.500/.321/.768 shooting, 8.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 0.9 steals per game. He increased the defensive pressure in the postseason, which assisted LA in getting to the Western Conference.