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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 20, 2011

LeBron James

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

West Â– 148
East - 143

Q. The All-Star Weekend is all about fun, but did you consider the fourth quarter as business?
LeBRON JAMES: It's the game of basketball, is fun for me. You know, you get out here and you know, once you get on the court and the referee gets to blowing the whistle and you start putting up points, a guys are defending, competitive nature takes over and you want to win.

Q. You had a great performance tonight with a triple-double, can you talk about that?
LeBRON JAMES: Just tried to showcase my talent on both ends of the floor defending, rebounding, scoring. Tried to help lead our team to victory. We came up short and you know for me, I'm all about winning, so just a little disappointed in our game. Disappointed that we didn't win. But at the same time I'm happy that All-Star Weekend was a success once again.

Q. What was the highlight of the whole weekend for you?
LeBRON JAMES: The highlight of the whole weekend for me had to be the community work that I did. I went to the Boys & Girls Club on the east side of Los Angeles Saturday morning, and I teamed up with myself and Jay-Z, we teamed up with Sprite, it's called Sprite "Spark Parks" and we teamed up and revamped a whole Boys & Girls Club where they redid the floor, they redid the whole gymnasium for these kids and the kids had unbelievable talents, everything from singing to go craftsmanship to dancing to being artistic, being artistes. It was an amazing moment for me to see kids that people want to write up and become a statistic. It was a great moment for myself just to be a part of that.

Q. If there is a lockout this coming season, would you consider playing in Europe?
LeBRON JAMES: You know, I'm not sure. And I think we all hope that there is not a lockout. I mean, you see what this event -- how great this event is tonight. And not only tonight, but this whole weekend, what it brings. You've got the NBA Cares. You've got the NBA Saturday Night and the NBA Friday Night and everything that goes on with this weekend, you would hope that there's no stoppage in play. We don't know what it's going to take, yet, but I don't know, to answer your question, what I'll be doing as far as a game plan, if work stops.

Q. Do you feel exhausted after this weekend, or was this a weekend of rest for you?
LeBRON JAMES: I got a lot of rest. I got a lot of rest. I was able to get like 12 hours of sleep every single day. Don't I look rested? (Laughing).

Q. Do you feel like you have a concrete notion of exactly where the Heat needs to go from here and what you guys need to do as a group to get to what your goals are?
LeBRON JAMES: You know, for the first two thirds of the season, we played some good basketball. For the last third of the season, we have to understand that we cannot afford to take a step backwards and we have to keep moving forward. Every game, every practice, every film session, we have to figure out a way to get better, no matter if we are just coming in for a shoot around or if we are coming in for a game where it's four and five nights where it's back-to-back. We have to continue to get better, because there are teams out there that's better than us right now.
We are moving at a cheetah's place, we are trying to move as fast as possible to get to where we want to get to compete at the highest level.

Q. You light up when you talk about charity work. Is there a particular charity that you most enjoy working with?
LeBRON JAMES: Anything that has to do with kids, for me. Anything had a has to do with underprivileged kids, like I always bring the statistics up. I grew up in an inner city, and they always try to shoot down your dreams and say that it's not possible. I'm one of those few kids that made it. And I know where I come from.
So I always said, if I ever had an opportunity to be successful in whatever I do in life that I was always going to give back to under privileged kids who believe and have a dream and try to make that dream become a reality.

Q. What did you think of Kobe's performance and could you tell that he really wanted this MVP trophy?
LeBRON JAMES: Well, he played great. He came out from the start very aggressive. You know, did he what Kobe Bryant does every night, and that's score the basketball. That's probably one of the best scorers that the game has ever seen. He helped lead his team to victory. So he definitely deserved it.

Q. Since the days when you were younger and you saw Michael Jordan, Magic playing in the All-Star Game, how do you think the game has changed to today?
LeBRON JAMES: I mean, those are all great players. You are looking at -- if you are talking about the early '90s or late '80s, I mean, when you talk about All-Star Game, these are the greatest players in the league at that particular moment, 24 of the best players the league has to offer.
You know, you have athleticism, you have guys that can fly, you have guys that can shoot the ball extremely well and you have guys that can handle the ball like no other. You have Isiah Thomas and you have Chris Paul; you have Michael Jordan and you've got Kobe Bryant; you've got Magic Johnson and you've got I guess myself, and the list goes on.
So the game has not changed that much. We just try to follow the footsteps those guys were able to lay down for us and make this game a beautiful game to watch.

End of FastScripts

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