LeBron James claims he’ll have patience with Los Angeles Lakers
By Dave Daniels
LeBron James knows that patience will be key for himself and his teammates this season.
LeBron James is at the start of a new season with the third NBA team of his career, and everything about this will be scrutinized over the coming months. Once the Los Angeles Lakers hit the floor with their new superstar, it will make daily headlines whether they are struggling or thriving.
James knows that it will take time to adjust to his new teammates, and he claims that he’ll be patient, even if that isn’t his first instinct.
“I’m not a very patient guy, but I understand that I have to be patient right now,” he told NBA.com. “I’ve got to be patient with myself, too, because this is a new start for me. It’s my first year in a new system. I know how to play the game of basketball, but this is all new to me, too. So I have to be patient with myself, not only with my teammates.”
It remains to be seen when James will waver on this commitment to patience, but it won’t be surprising if he makes some passive aggressive statements by December if the season isn’t going the way he likes.
James has said that the only reason he’s in Los Angeles is “to someday hoist the trophy” as a Laker, but it can’t be ignored that his other interests are also a factor. Space Jam 2 is officially going down after all. It feels a bit like LeBron is punting this season to the Golden State Warriors until another star arrives next summer, but he’s too much of a perfectionist to ignore continuous failure. So it should be super interesting to see how he handles this situation.
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The key to this team succeeding is how the veterans and young players mesh together. Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, and JaVale McGee might be the oddest collection of free agent signings from this offseason. But if they can teach the likes of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, and Brandon Ingram to handle the pressures of the NBA, then that would please Magic Johnson and LeBron greatly. Either way, it’s going to take a lot of patience.