NBA FINALS: LAKERS VS. HEAT

October 1, 2020

LeBron James

Los Angeles Lakers

Practice Day

Q. Just wondered over the course of your career what's your approach when your opponent is missing a couple of key players? What's the message to relate to your team?

LEBRON JAMES: Keep the same thing the same thing. You prepare for whoever is out on the floor. There's going to be five guys in opposing jerseys on the floor, and they're all dangerous, no matter who's in the lineup, no matter what the name is. You have to approach it like they all can beat you as a unit, and as individuals they're on the floor for a reason. We understand that. We will have a game plan, no matter who's out on the floor. But that's not for us to worry about. For us to worry about is how we approach the game coming into Game 2 and how we continue to work our habits and try to be as great as we can be throughout 48 minutes.

Q. In what ways have you benefited from all these Finals appearances in terms of what it's meant to have the game's best coaches kind of expose any weaknesses and nitpick at your game? What coaches that you've faced on this stage have had the biggest influence on your improvements?

LEBRON JAMES: Like I mentioned last night, the best teacher is life experience. I've played against great coaches throughout my whole career, not only in the regular season but in the postseason, throughout first, second, third, Finals runs. I've played against some exceptional coaches, great coaches, Hall of Fame coaches, Hall of Fame players. They've all, opponents and coaches, helped me get to this point where I am today, to a point where I have no weakness, offensively or defensively, to where if I can read a defense, I can exploit it. I can put myself in a position to be successful. It doesn't mean that the ball goes in all the time, but there's nothing out on the floor that I cannot do at this point in my career. That's all because of the competition and the adversity and the losses and everything I've been through throughout the course of my career. At that point in time I say I've got to work on this because that's what they're allowing me to have; now I've got to work on this because they're shutting this down in my game. It's just, like I said, the best teacher in life is life experience, and I've experienced it all.

Q. Last night you were so excited to get back into the film and just go over what had happened in Game 1. How late did you stay up watching last night, and then today have you guys gotten together at all to watch film? And then also I was wondering what your biggest takeaways were from that review.

LEBRON JAMES: I stayed up until about 4:00, 4:30 in the morning last night breaking down the film individually, watching the same things that we did throughout the course of the game, seeing ways we were great, seeing ways we were not so great, and a lot of them were things that we can control. We're playing against an exceptional basketball team, obviously, great coached. So we have to continue to understand that coming into Game 2. It was great to get with the guys today earlier and go over the film, and like I said, see things that we can do a lot better, both offensively and defensively.

They're going to make adjustments in Game 2, and we need to be ready for that. We can't come out with the energy that we had in Game 1 and go down 23-10 and expect the same result as we had in Game 1. So we look forward to that challenge.

Q. What's it like going up against a guy like Jae Crowder, who you had playoff battles when he was in Boston, then you were teammates, and now here you are going against one another again with the Finals on the line and having some physical moments in Game 1?

LEBRON JAMES: It was like every other individual I went against in this playoff run.

Q. We talk about your leadership and how much you're able to help teach your teammates. What does that look like during the regular season versus during the Finals?

LEBRON JAMES: I think for me, it's all about how you approach being a professional. That's both on and off the floor, how you show up to work, how you walk, how you move, how you prepare. It's not all about just talking about it. It's how you be about it as well. You don't get to pick two or three days out of the week where you want to be a leader or you say I want it to be Monday, Wednesday, Friday. No, it's an everyday thing, both on the court and off the court.

I try to lead by example. I lead by my voice as well. But I put the work in. I think my guys see how much I put the work in, and they allow me to lead them. I respect them for that. I'm humbled by that as well.

Q. Non-Finals question. One of your rookie basketball cards bid for $1.8 million and another bid for $900,000. Given your humble beginnings, what do you think of that when -- you're still playing, and it's not like you're Honus Wagner or Babe Ruth. How do you take that in when somebody is paying $1.8 million for your rookie card?

LEBRON JAMES: I think it's pretty cool. That's the first thing I think about when I think about where I come from, hearing those numbers -- you didn't hear those numbers much growing up, obviously, where I'm from. And the second thing I think about is I have two rookie cards of my own, so I'll be good for a very, very long time. No matter what happens, I'm good.

Q. A couple days ago you talked about what's happening in the world right now, controlling what you can control. On the voting front, the Washington Post today had a story come out saying that the players have gone from I think 22 percent to 85 percent representation. That's you guys controlling what you can control. How much pride do you take in that, and do you feel like that message is landing and will make a mark?

LEBRON JAMES: That is the hope. That's the hope every day, that you can educate and you can get people motivated to go out and create change. I've just tried to put not only myself but my team in position to be able to educate whoever needs it and to encourage and to empower people in our communities. Like I say, we always talk about change in our communities: We want change, we want to see this, we want to see that. We have the opportunity to do so.

It's an honor for me to be in a position where I can have a platform and I can have a support system and I can have a group of people that we can put together a plan and then execute that and give it back. It's also very humbling as well to hear that number, that percentage go from the low 20s to the 80s. It's something that we want to continue to grow. Hopefully we can be in the 90s by next week and even higher and in the higher 90s by November. We want to continue that.

Also had a lot of the volunteer poll workers in the virtual fan thing last night, 40 of them to be exact, and we have over 10,000 volunteers right now with More Than a Vote with the campaign that we're doing, initiative that we're doing. Hopefully we can get 11,000 tomorrow and 12,000 and continue to grow that because it's so important. We understand that, especially with COVID going around and not having the elderly out of their homes and doing those things, having the younger generation being able to come in and help out in such a difficult time right now with the virus that's going on still is very, very key. Like I say, I'm proud of where we are, but we have a lot more room to go. Hopefully we continue to do that.

Q. I know you referenced "Step Brothers" the other night in relationship to Anthony. But I want to know the common ground that you guys may share or have shared that allowed your relationship to flourish and if there's any way that he has an influence on you on the basketball court.

LEBRON JAMES: We're not jealous of each other. I think that's the best thing. In professional sports, you have guys that join forces to become alpha males. That's what they call them. Two guys that have been dominant in a specific sport on their own respective teams, and they get together and they talk about how dominant they can be and they talk about this is going to be this and that.

I believe jealousy creeps in a lot. And that is the absolute contrary of what we are. We know who we are. We know what we're about. We want the best, seriously, every single day, both on and off the floor, for one another. We're just not jealous of one another. I think that you align that with respect, I think the sky's the limit.

Q. To follow up on what you said about you and AD, do you feel like the ability to not be jealous of each other is sort of a natural quality or is that something that has to be learned for some guys, and what was that like for you kind of striking that balance?

LEBRON JAMES: I don't speak for other guys and what they -- I don't know, I just speak for myself. For AD, I know who we are. We respect one another. We drive one another. We command excellence out of one another. And that's what it boils down to.

Jealousy and envy has killed a lot of great things, not only in sports but in general. If you're able to just throw that to the side and throw your egos to the side but continue to bring that confidence of what you're trying to do of keeping the main thing the main thing -- not saying it's that easy, but for us it's that easy when it comes to our relationship. Like I said, it doesn't result in wins every night. It doesn't result in me putting up numbers or him putting up numbers every night, but as far as our brotherhood and our chemistry, that's what it boils down to.

Q. Last night you said that you think it's easier to learn from wins than it is from losses. I'm curious, though, how did the 2007 Finals shape the next 13 years of your career, going through that first trip and feeling that pain from that series?

LEBRON JAMES: Well, I mean, obviously they were the better team. Dealing with Timmy and Manu and Tony and Pop, four Hall of Famers, I knew it would be challenging, not only for myself but for our franchise and for our ballclub. I saw the way they approached every game, how they approached every possession. They didn't make mistakes. They weren't just happy with being there; they wanted to be great, as a unit and as individuals as well.

I sensed that as a 22-year-old, and I saw that as a 22-year-old. That helped shape me year after year after year after year, just holding on to that feeling of not being able to reach the ultimate goal. But at the same time, like I said, just having that adversity and having those moments has put me in a position where I've been throughout my career.

Q. When you went to the first Finals against Golden State, you lose Kyrie Irving in Game 1, you had already lost Kevin Love, then you went out and won the next couple games. When a team is in Miami's situation now and they talk about next man up, next man up, how did you go from saying we can still do this to putting together a plan and then actually going out and doing it the next couple games?

LEBRON JAMES: I think every situation is different. For us, obviously, losing Kyrie and losing Kevin in that playoff run was detrimental to our success. We were still able to have some success, but we never fully reached the full potential of what our ballclub could be in that run.

That's different from -- I can't correlate that to what today is all about. For us as a ballclub and for us as the Lakers, our mindset is Game 1 is over and Game 2 we've got to be better than we were in Game 1. And when we approach that with that mindset and be as desperate as the opponent, then we give ourselves a good chance to win.

Q. You guys were still able to create and sustain three separate runs despite not having those benchmark things from points in the paint and fast break points. What did you like most about the ability to do that despite not having those weapons?

LEBRON JAMES: Yeah, for us the game kind of dictates itself at times. We have to win in different ways. We're very good at the fast break game. We understand that. But when we make our mark on the defensive end, when we're getting deflections, we're getting blocked shots, we're contesting shots either at the rim or at the perimeter or mid-range, things of that nature, which creates early offense for us, it doesn't always show up in the box score, but when we're active defensively, we're an extremely good team.

Every game is going to be its own challenge, and we understand that. You have to win games in different fashions. Sometimes even outside your own box. But I think the great teams learn that throughout the course of a run, throughout the course of a season, and that's what puts them in a position to compete for a championship, which we are today.