Original subtitles

Jason, anything you want us to hit

or you go back over, or do you want us to close it up?

[Jason] I don't have anything. Only question I have

is who decided to go with the boy band look first,

-was it you or was it Dirk? -[Lebron laughing]

[Lebron] The Backstreet Boys look? The old NSYNC look?

[upbeat music]

Welcome back to Mind The Game.

Today, we got an opportunity

to sit down and talk to LeBron virtually.

He's away with his family.

I'm here at home.

Some of our subsequent conversations this summer

will be virtually,

so bear with us if there's any technical issues

that we iron out along the way,

but hopefully we'll be in person some,

but also definitely virtual as we are today.

We got a great opportunity to sit with LeBron,

talk to him about the series he just played

versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.

What he experienced, what he faced,

what he thinks of the T Wolves.

Thought they were impressive throughout the series.

We've seen a team here mature.

They made a big trade last summer.

KAT going to New York,

and DiVincenzo and Julius Randle going to the T Wolves.

And I think they've done an amazing job this year,

finding an identity with those new pieces.

Not easy to do.

So big shout out to their staff and players

for how they've been able to matriculate through the season.

Find this identity

and be an incredible team when it counts the most.

And we'll also talk a little bit about Anthony Edwards

and the leap he's made recently

from, you know, primarily a scorer to a playmaker.

Lakers did a lot of things in this series

to try to slow him down, to try to take away his impact,

to keep him off their rim.

And he showed, I think, some incredible growth and maturity,

moving the ball, making simple passes,

playing with different paces, changing gears,

a growth and maturity that,

you know, I think we'd love to see

in all of our young stars in this league.

So, great conversation with LeBron today

looking back on the series with the T Wolves.

Hope you guys enjoy.

[upbeat music]

-Mind the Game. -Yes, sir. Back again, baby.

Back at it.

-Hey-- -Yeah.

first of all, condolences, you know,

obviously, sad to see you guys go out of the playoffs.

Yeah, man.

Before we dig into that though,

I think it's probably appropriate that we

send a major congrats shout out to Coach Pop.

Oh wow. Yeah, for sure.

There's no way we even start this conversation

without even talking about Pop

and what he means for the game.

What he meant, obviously, for just the NBA, San Antonio.

I mean, West Point.

I mean, all the stops that he had.

I mean, you know, to be able to cross paths.

I mean, we've crossed paths

with Coach Pop so many times, you know,

and I had one opportunity to actually play for him

in the Olympics in 2004,

and obviously going against him three times

in the NBA finals.

And, I mean, what can you say?

I mean, you could say...

I mean, you talk about the superlatives

when it comes to Coach Pop, man.

His list is, you know, out of this world.

But I think what a lot of people have found out,

if you ever got an opportunity to encounter

a one-on-one with him,

or even just in crossing,

how great of a fucking guy that guy is, man.

And it makes sense of how unbelievable coach he was,

you know, because of the person he was.

That's right.

I mean, you look at the superlatives, as you say,

winning his coach in NBA history,

five titles,

18-50 win seasons.

That's insane. Insane.

-Insane. -170 playoff wins.

-Wow. Wow. -170, right?

So, over two NBA seasons in wins, in the playoffs.

What about playing for him?

Coach Pop had you at Team USA.

Tell us a little bit about that experience.

Yeah, it's just, you know, the admiration.

Like, for me, I was an 18-year-old kid, you know?

And, you know, I got an opportunity to see it,

you know, when they won a championship in '99,

and then when they won it again, I believe in 2000...

2003 maybe?

So I had already had admiration,

you know, for Pop and his San Antonio team.

And, you know, I was on the team,

I was a young guy alongside, you know, Carmelo Anthony.

We were young guys.

Dwayne Wade, we were super young.

And, you know, to be a part of,

you know, that team...

You know, obviously, we didn't succeed

like we wanted to succeed,

but to be on a team with like Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan,

you know, and Coach Pop,

you know, Larry Brown,

it was like another welcome,

you know, to what greatness is all about, you know?

And, you know, to see where Coach Pop have left this game,

you know, as far as him patrolling the sidelines

for as long as he did,

and, you know, the amount of wins that you just mentioned,

the amount of championships, the amount of great players

that he's seen come through the San Antonio franchise,

it's just been a complete honor, man.

And for me to have a real personal relationship with him,

that every time I see him is like,

you know, just so much respect, and so much honor,

and, you know, definitely will be missed.

You know, definitely will be missed.

But obviously, we know health is most important,

but, you know, we cannot shy away from the fact

of what he was able to accomplish on those sidelines.

Yeah, I mean, just greatness.

You know, organizational greatness.

You know, his role as a coach, but also as a GM, or President,

or all the different roles he's taken on there.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, the type of program organization they built.

And a big part of that DNA is him and his personality,

-his standards. -Yeah. Yep.

Not just what he demands from players on the court,

but also the type of people he tries to recruit

or develop,

or, you know, influence.

And you look at that family tree,

how many coaches around the league,

you know, Steve Kerr obviously played for him.

Ime play and coached with him and for him.

You know, it goes on and on and on. Dozens of them.

-Dozens of them. -But I think your point

about him being a great man, you know?

He's still with us and hopefully--

-Yeah. -he's gonna have a big

impact going forward.

-His health can continue-- -Absolutely.

-to improve and- -Yep.

But we just wanna take this time to talk about,

you know, his success and who he is.

One little story that I always loved

is we played them in the playoffs,

can't remember, conference finals, semi-finals,

and me and Tony Parker bumped heads.

I can't remember.

But I'm sure I was bleeding as usual.

-[Lebron laughing] -I was leaking blood.

It was my nose, right? It was my nose.

And it was right down the stretch of the game,

you know, last five, six minutes of the game, I believe,

and trying to get the blood to stop.

It's like right on the crease of my nose.

And, you know, it's just like

really thin skin through there so blood's flying out.

So I come in the game, like I made a three.

It's bleeding, the refs, "Get him out,"

come back in the games, it's bleeding again.

Pop was over there, like, "Just let him play."

-Right. -"Just let him play," you know?

And so, they obviously not gonna let me play

until you get better.

But like, I believed him that he wanted me to play.

He's like, "I wanna beat them

-with their full compliment. -Full strength.

We're here to win against them with their best punch.

And so, I always admired the type of human being he is.

The way he stood up for what he believes in,

you know, human rights.

-Yeah, for sure. -For people.

For people that are underserved or,

you know, under advantaged. And so...

I think you make a great point.

It's not just the accolades as a coach

and an organizational leader.

It's the type of human being, the way he did it.

I think he did such a service to our community,

but also to our league, you know, as an example for

how we wanna behave.

We're all gonna have different ways

of doing things, but he set a hell of an example

for what success looks like.

And the way you approach it.

Yeah, and you always hear this term, culture.

You know, in our league,

does it have a good culture?

Does this franchise have a great culture?

And I think when you look at it,

if you can think of one franchise

that the culture has always been, you know,

the stability of that culture,

or this is how the culture is gonna be ran,

you automatically think about the San Antonio Spurs

and the one common, you know,

denominator is been Pop, you know?

You could look at all the players has come through there,

you know, when Pop became head coach from Vinny Del Negro

to Avery Johnson, to David Robinson,

to obviously then Tim Duncan, then Manu, then Tony,

then all these guys, you know,

all the way down to DeMar DeRozan

and all these guys.

-Kawhi, Wemby. -Kawhi, Wemby.

All these guys towards, you know,

but the one common denominator has always been Pop.

And you think about culture

and what everybody's trying to build now.

You hear Heat culture,

you hear all these other franchises building a culture.

And I think it started, man,

and you know, like you said, the early 1990s,

you know, when Pop took over

and it's 2025, man.

Right?

It's 2025.

And I think, you know, people try to

in all sports, you know, in all sports,

you used to hear about the New England Patriots,

with Belichick.

But I think it started with Pop as well

and having that influence, just being able,

this is how things are gonna be ran.

No single person is bigger than this culture

and what we're trying to build here.

And I think that has a lot to do with success.

Obviously, we've seen it.

Yeah, well, coming from the both of us, you know,

we hope we see and hear a lot more from Coach Pop.

Absolutely

Congrats on an incredible career,

but hopefully his influence will continue

to take an impact on our league

and our communities for a long time.

Absolutely. Shout out Coach Pop, man.

We'll miss you, brother.

Yes, sir.

[upbeat music]

First, how's the knee?

Oh, man, this is my in my 22-year career,

-this is my first knee injury. -Right.

You know, I've had the regular tendonitis and patella,

all that stuff.

But this is the first time I've ever had

like a sustained knee injury where I had to like, okay,

you gotta get off your feet.

You know, you gotta kind of be shelved for a minute.

And, you know, I knew as soon as when the impact happened

with me and DiVincenzo, you know, I felt it right away.

My knee locked up.

And that's why I kind of, I stayed on the ground

for quite a minute to see, you know,

if the knee would kind of release a little bit.

But I knew right then and there it was a pain

that I hadn't felt before.

And I think obviously, when I was running back to close out

and he collided into me, you know, my knee bent inward,

and that's the MCL injury that I had.

So, you know, four to six weeks,

the docs told me.

I have four to six weeks now.

That's the benefit, that's the benefit of not, you know,

going on in the postseason.

Obviously, I wish I was still going,

but you know, unfortunately, even if we would've won

game five at home, you know,

I would've probably missed six and seven.

And even further.

But, you know, I have some time though,

I have some time to get it right

and get back to full strength as far as my knee.

It's definitely, it was a pain that next morning, man,

you know, after I had told the docs, I was like, listen,

you know, it feels it's sore right now, yes.

And you know, this is Wednesday night after the game

and I said, you know, if I wake up Thursday morning

and it didn't feel any better then you know, Friday morning,

let's get an MRI Friday morning.

Well, when I woke up Thursday morning

and try to get out of bed, I was like, "holy shit."

And I called doc right away.

I said, "I can't wait till Friday.

I need to go today."

So I mean, that, that really was it for your season.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, pretty much. Yeah.

Yeah, unfortunately.

Well, at least it's containable,

you know, it's a non-surgical four to six weeks.

You get yourself right in this wheelhouse

of trying to get some time off.

In that respect like, what is your mindset right now?

Like, it's always weird, like when I played, you know,

you add a new variable to it, getting healthy now.

-Right. Right. Right. -So you have a forced variable.

Right, right

When I was in your shoes, you lose a series,

like you'd have these different kind of thoughts.

One, sometimes you'd be, you know, devastated.

Other times you'd be over analytical.

Other times you just want space.

You know, my bandwidth is done, I need to get away.

Like, where are you right now, with the way

this kind of season was, big season for you guys, right?

Like a big trade.

Trying to ram this team together as quickly as possible.

Yeah, as quickly as possible.

Had a hell of a run getting into the playoffs.

You know, styles make fights and it was a tough matchup

for you guys, but where's your mindset

before we talk about the series?

Like you just said, Steve,

you unravel all of those emotions, you know,

and I've unraveled all of them in a sense of like,

give me space, you know, going back analytically

seeing if there was ways what could I have done better,

what we could have done better,

thinking about the individual matchups,

thinking about their team versus our team.

Things where we could have did better, you know,

and it all has entered my mind since Wednesday night

when it was over with.

So, you know, I've had a few days to kind of just,

each day has been something different, you know?

And obviously I've come to grips with it now,

you know, with it being quite a few days after the fact

and watching a lot of the other series now

and seeing how they unfold.

But yeah, you said it, man,

I've had all those emotions

to the point where it's like, what the,

shit we entered the season well,

but like you said, when it comes to the postseason, man,

matchups sometimes doesn't determine

how well of a regular season you had.

It's the matchups

and we ran into a damn good matchup.

A team that's been battle tested, a team that's hungry,

a team that a lot of youth,

but also experienced at the same time.

And a team that's trying to make the next step.

You know, they were a worthy opponent, that's for sure.

How does kind of these like media narratives

enter your frame of mind at this time of year?

Like, for example, because it's the Lakers,

because it's you and Luka, it's all about

how did the Lakers lose this series?

But really like what happened here

is Minnesota's a hell of a team and they won this series.

Yeah, yeah.

How do you deal with some of that

when you try to process all this?

For me, I've definitely learned over the years

that teams win championships.

-Always. -Always.

Always, teams always win championships.

And yes, individuals get a lot of the accolades

and the praise, but a collective group, you know,

wins championships.

Now, you know, you have your big guys

that make big plays at the end of games, throughout the game

or whatever the case may be.

But ultimately, you know, teams win championships.

And I understand that,

and it's never just about me and Luca.

It was never just about, you know, Anthony Edwards

and Julius Randle, you know,

it was always Minnesota versus the Lakers.

And I understand that,

and I'm at a point in my career now, where I...

I don't lose sleep over that, like,

"Fuck, how did me and Luka lose like--"

Right, I know, I know.

Well, there's eight other guys on the floor.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -You know, so--

-Of course. -You know, so, I'm like, yeah.

It's always, you know, it's the nature of the business.

-Yeah, sure. -It's the nature of the business.

When you've played 22 years, you've heard that you've,

-you've seen that before. -Oh man, I've seen it.

But it is an interesting talking point in general

is that like, you guys are a developing roster.

You know, you traded for a big generational piece.

But that doesn't mean the roster is balanced.

[LeBron] Correct.

You don't have time, once getting Luka

to make moves necessarily that are gonna allow you

to kind of fulfill that roster. Like a way Minnesota is,

like Minnesota could trade pieces out,

but essentially, they're a balanced roster.

You could say I'd rather this guy than that guy,

-but they have the positions covered. -Right.

Yeah, and the only thing they changed,

you know, in the off-season, they brought in two guys.

They kind of lost a big piece. Obviously KAT,

but brought in Julius and DiVincenzo, you know,

and the other guys came back, you know, so the experience

of being in the Western Conference Finals last year,

you know, DiVincenzo has played in big games, you know,

and those guys just learn and continue to build.

They're regular season.

I don't think their regular season gave them an...

It didn't give any of us or the narrative that

how good of a team they were actually were.

Yeah, for sure.

They were dealing with injuries,

they were dealing with trying to learn each other.

But, you know, when the postseason comes

and you have that team of collective group,

they have a strong eight to nine guys, you know,

from their starting lineup to Naz Reid, to DiVincenzo

to Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

And those guys, they come in

and they just play extremely hard so...

Yeah, from my perspective, it's two things, I think,

that they had that you guys are looking for.

One is an identity. They formed one this year.

You guys are just trying to figure yours out.

Yeah, yeah.

Like right, and those collective experiences

of being there, looking at each other when you're down 15

in game three or whatever,

and say, "We've been here, we know what to do."

Instead, you're looking at each other like,

"I've never been here with you. How are you feeling?"

How am I, you know, that stuff, those scars, those lessons.

So I think they built an identity this year.

You know, I think the other part of this was just speed.

Yeah.

They have foot speed to defend, to attack.

You guys had positional size, even though you'd play small

for the most part in the playoffs.

You guys are 6'6" 6'10" across the board, other than Gabe.

So, you know, you have the size,

you tried, obviously, as you did in the regular season to a lot of success.

Kind of zone up, get up in the gaps,

try to take the primary ball handler outta the game.

But when they have that quickness

-and Ant, he's so explosive. -[LeBron] He's improved, man.

-[Steve] And he's improved the playmaking. -Exactly.

He's improved so much with his playmaking

and you've seen him make the jump, you know,

just from last year's playoff run

all the way to just one, just one playoff, you know,

series right there.

He was super patient, you know,

even when we were getting up in the gaps

and sometimes we would double him,

sometimes we would smoke,

sometimes we would be in the gaps,

just trying to make him think. And we did.

There was a--

he had one quote where he was like,

"Their defense is confusing and making me think."

And he figured it out, you know, so I commend him, man.

He just grew throughout our series

that I think is gonna benefit him throughout,

you know, the rest of this run.

But yeah, 100%.

And your guys' strategy felt like for me,

whether you are in a soft blitz or just in the gaps,

you were leaving guys in the corner coming high,

loading to the ball, trying to bait him into those passes

that maybe he's not sure the guy's gonna get a look

or he's gotta throw it over hands trying to confuse him.

And I think to your point, he did a lot of things

better this year than he has in the past.

He slowed down.

-[LeBron] Yeah, yep. -He changed paces.

He would drive, and he would hesitate slightly

instead of just all one speed.

Yeah.

To give him a chance to see is he coming, is he not coming?

Where's this pass? Where's my window?

Do I have a layup or do I need to get off it?

He also, I think, sometimes got into a crowd

and instead of making a difficult pass,

he made simple passes.

Which in the past, he wasn't as willing to make,

that's a huge step.

A simple one, get off and allow your teammate to have a closeout,

you know, or a two-on-one, right?

Like that's the way to bust the way you guys were trying

-to load to him. -[LeBron] Yeah, yeah.

Tricky, because the foot speed piece.

And I'd love to hear how you guys approached it,

even when you tried to double him a little bit,

guys were reluctant to run and double him

'cause he's so explosive. So he had the time.

Make the time to look around and pick his spot.

Yeah. And that's why we changed pitches.

We wanted to change pitches on him

as much as possible 'cause

you don't ever give one player, no great players,

one steady diet of the same thing, you know?

But, you know, even when you try to double 'em,

his ability to race double teams,

to split double teams, to get creative.

And he's still strong, too,

so it's not like he's a frail guy where you can double him

and be more, be super aggressive with him and get him on.

He's definitely, he's learned over the time,

but he's strong.

He has low center of gravity. He has a great handle.

He can shoot the ball extremely well.

And you know, to add on to what we said a couple times

before in some of our older episodes

about believing in your teammates,

making them feel even better than what they are as well.

And he's trusting his teammates to make plays.

I think, you know, that's a...

Man, listen, we gotta give 'em Minnesota their flowers.

-That's a damn good team, man. -A very good team.

I'm looking forward to seeing their next matchup, you know?

Either between, you know, Golden State or Houston.

Yeah, for sure.

There was a clip of you telling Ant after the game,

-take the next step. -Yeah.

Y'all take the next step now.

Tell me, like in your words,

as somebody that you have played with

on the USAB stuff and the Olympics, gold medal together.

Obviously, there's some mentorship.

Like what did that moment mean to you when you say that

to a young player that you've shared the floor with?

You know, I think that moment for me, is like, you know,

understanding and recognizing the next generation

and someone who can do it and be great

and be great for a long time in our league.

That's what our game is about,

being able to pass it down to the next generation

and they can continue to do great things.

And for me, being out there,

in my 22nd season, playing against a young, up-and-coming,

you know, superstar in the flesh, you know,

in Anthony Edwards and watching him

in the postseason last year, make those steps

to get to the Western Conference Finals

and fall short to Dallas, you know,

and then have a full summer with him in the Olympic team.

And seeing how great he was, just listening

and just soaking in everything from myself,

from myself to KD to Steph.

You know, you could just see

he was just like a little kid in a candy store.

-Enthusiasm for him. -Yeah, like super energetic and happy

and just like, super, like, he was just grateful

that he was in that opportunity to be there.

And for me to just like, you know,

tell him to take the next step, like,

it doesn't always mean, okay, Western Conference Finals

and now, you gotta be in the finals.

It's like, take the next step and just you as a person,

you as a player, continue to get better, better, and better.

You know, your time's gonna come. Whatever.

I can't decide when that's gonna be.

Sometimes we have no control over when that next step

as far as going to the finals and winning.

We're not always have the opportunity to do that,

but like we do have control over making the next step

in our own individual journey.

Yeah.

And I think that's what it was about.

Because I love seeing that, man. I love seeing--

I love seeing Jayson Tatum take that next step.

You know, I love seeing, you know-- Now I see Ant,

you know, taking that next step.

It's a proud feeling for me as a player,

been in the league for so long.

You admire it when you see someone's putting the time in.

-Yeah. -And they're improving.

Like you said, for Ant to have that type of openness

and attitude around USAB, you know, coming in with like,

this is a great opportunity.

Like immediately, it's gonna give you excitement

for his journey because he wants to learn, you can tell.

But I think that, you know, that buy-in

of continually improving, you know,

someone like he can rely on his athleticism.

But to take the next step, you know,

he's gotta be a great teammate and be coachable.

He's gotta make his teammates believe he's bought in.

I think you could see that, you know,

there's always been a little chatter around Rudy

or around Randle, and I thought they both were

laser focused, simplified their games, were efficient.

And that's a lot of it comes from the head of the snake

is he willing to make the simple play, pass,

make his teammates better.

Rudy had a great game

and he deserves all the credit in the world.

But his opportunities came from the pressure

Ant puts on the defense.

-Yeah, absolutely. -You know?

Everything that Rudy did in that game five

came because Ant approached the game

the way he did those first four games.

Now all the eyes was on Ant, you know?

And everything was game-planned around Ant.

And Rudy was the beneficiary of that moment.

And you know, and also like, you know,

when you have a guy like Ant who's growing,

and making that change,

and you can see him developing more and more,

it makes guys want to come there too.

Like, you know, you have to think long-term, too,

when it comes to like free agency and

How you continue to get better too as a team

is being able to get small pieces.

When you're a good team

that's trying to become a great team,

it's literally one or two pieces like in the off-season

that if you acquire, that makes the jump for you.

And, you know, Ant has that...

He has that bravado and that flare and that "It Factor,"

you know, that guys wanna play alongside that.

Because it's energetic, it's fun, and he competes.

-And he competes. -For sure.

We gotta give credit to their coaches,

they've done a great job.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

They've developed those guys, Ant as well.

It's a symbiotic relationship, right?

Coaches develop, players gotta buy in.

-Yeah. -And they've both done that.

And I could read between the lines,

Rudy was asked, Ant didn't shoot the ball well,

and his comment was, "He made the right plays.

We don't care if he makes or misses."

To me, that's an organizational language.

That's the film sessions.

-Yeah. -In meetings.

Like, "Ant make the right plays, make the right decisions."

And his growth from last year to this year in that way.

So I give credit to the whole organization,

especially that coaching staff

for helping that team matriculate.

Yeah.

How far do you think they can go?

Wow, I personally think...

I'm looking at the competition

and the rest of the field, which is a lot of great teams left.

But I could see them

for sure getting into the Western Conference Finals,

if not the Finals.

-I think obviously, health is wealth. -Sure.

-Always. -in the postseason.

But I think if they... They have all the makeups,

they have shooting, toughness, size,

they have foot speed, play-making experience.

-Defensive versatility. -They have defensive versatility,

which you need in the postseason.

And those guys, they play extremely hard, you know?

And they have a, like you said,

you gotta give credit to the coaching staff, too.

They are putting those guys

in the right position to be successful.

So I think they have an opportunity.

If at least the Western Conference Finals,

if not, then the Finals.

-I mean... -Yeah.

-They have the makeup for that. -Yeah.

Yeah, it's gonna be some exciting series.

You know, I obviously think OKC's been outstanding this year.

Oh, absolutely.

That's a great series.

We got a game seven--

-Oh man. -Taping today on a Sunday.

Warriors-Rockets, which has been a fascinating series.

Yeah.

You know, and the next rounds even gonna be, you know, incredible.

[jazzy music]

I gotta ask this.

22nd season playing an entire half in the playoff game.

-[LeBron laughing] -How'd it feel?

-You've done that before. -I've done it before.

-You did it before. -Yeah.

How'd you feel?

-I felt in the moment. -Yeah.

You know, I wasn't tired.

You know, I wasn't at looking for a sub.

I wasn't...

-If it came, cool-- -Sure.

I would've accepted it.

But we had an opportunity to tie the series at two to two,

-you know, on the road-- -Yeah.

versus a great team.

And the coaches rolled the dice, and we rolled with it.

-Yep. -You know?

And we just didn't, we didn't make enough plays.

But I mean, I didn't leave...

I left that game extremely tired

and extremely like, "Whew, shit"

because it was a postseason game.

Not because I played the whole second half.

You know, I was tired as hell because I gave my whole body,

my body, my mind, my soul to the game for 48 minutes.

-I was extremely tired. -Yeah.

But it wasn't because, "Oh, well, I played, you know,

24 straight minutes in the second half."

No. You know, we had an opportunity and we didn't counter it.

Yeah. You know, I totally agree.

I mean, I think, yeah, aside from like anyone's critique

of shorting the bench to zero in the second half,

like you gotta push buttons, you gotta try things, right?

Like you can lose, or the coaches have a feeling

of what's going on, where the team's at,

where the desperation is.

The reality is they're a more complete roster at this stage of the story.

So for you guys to win,

you have to play above your level always.

You have to make shots at a high clip.

You have to be taking care of the basketball.

-Not giving up. Just didn't happen. -Yeah.

And that's what we talked about.

You're right, Steve, we talked about that, like the possession game.

We lost the possession game in the series.

And the possession game came down to offensive rebounds,

turnovers, you know, loose balls.

Like, they're a more complete team than we were.

You know, we had our opportunities.

And when you have your opportunities,

you can't have a high turnover game

and allowing them to get fast break points.

You can't guard as hard as we was guarding

and then give up two or three straight offensive rebounds.

You just can't. You can't do that.

-Which happened multiple times. -Which happened multiple times.

You have to be able to control the controllables.

And for the series, we didn't do that.

And that resulted even more of a reason

why we weren't able to extend the series.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's always funny though that the narratives

and, yeah, I mean, would it have made a big difference

to put Gabe in for a minute here or there or whatever?

Like, but you know, we overreact.

-For sure. -We overreact.

Coaches, they make an in-the-moment decision.

Mm-hmm.

And we always like to say,

"Well, punish people when it didn't work" at the same time.

You know, you lose that game

and there's another problem, right?

That's part of being a coach is you gotta be brave,

you gotta make decisions on the fly

sometimes they're right, sometimes wrong.

And by the way, none of us question.

None of us questioned JJ and the coaching staff

for what happened.

Obviously, you know, Gabe and Vando

are guys that have given us so many great minutes.

They definitely felt a way because they're competitors.

Shit, we all feel like we could get in

and make a moment happen.

But it wasn't a decision, which JJ told us,

It wasn't a decision that was based on

guys not being able to do the job.

It was just decision based on the feeling of the game

and the momentum of the game.

And none of us...

None of us looked at him-- or the coaching staff in anyway

for the decision that he made.

And shit, it was our fault that we didn't come through.

And that's part of making that decision

is knowing your guys have the maturity

and team-first attitude

to be upset because they're competitors.

But at the same time be like, "I'll be ready for the next game."

That's a part of a winning mentality in a group.

Yeah, absolutely.

So what's...

How are you gonna fill this gap of,

you know, taking care of this knee?

[laughing]

You got a little space, a little rest and recovery.

I know you don't like to sit still.

No, I don't like to sit still.

How are you gonna fill your time here?

Well, man, obviously number one is to get back healthy.

I'll be able to do some small stuff within the next week or two

just to get the mobility back into the knee and things of that nature.

You know, my youngest son is headed off to college soon.

So, you know, that's another bird out the nest.

A very emotional moment coming up for Bryce,

going off to Tucson to be an Arizona Wildcat.

But my daughter is heavily in volleyball,

so I'll be in a lot of gyms this summer

as she's with her travel league team--

-That's great. -out in California.

She, you know, they go all over.

They've been to Reno, Nevada,

they're going to Las Vegas, they play all over California.

So to spend a lot of time with her

and then, take some vacation time with the family.

Some of the times that you lose, you know,

obviously, when you're in the eight-nine month season.

And see what this next, you know,

what the next journey looks like.

You know, I haven't had the conversation

with the family yet, as far as me going forward,

or whatever the case may be.

But we'll see what happens.

Yeah, it's good for you to get some space.

I've done the volleyball thing.

My wife played in college

and I have a daughter playing D3,

so I've been in all those gyms,

all those tournaments in Vegas and all that stuff.

-Those are fun times, man. -Yeah.

-So enjoy that. -Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

I heard, listen, I heard you got a new thing.

-You wanna speak about that? -Oh, you know me.

Congratulations to you.

Well, this is, you know,

you got me rolling here in this media space, so.

-[LeBron laughing] -Gonna be on Prime Video

doing NBA games next year and studio work.

-Thank you, appreciate it. -Yes, sir.

Excited.

Great team over there.

Taylor Rooks, Dirk, my buddy, BG, UD, a few others.

It's gonna be an exciting project, you know,

to create a new show and a new way of covering the game,

hopefully with new voices.

-Yeah, yeah. -Definitely excited.

So you're getting me the early reps here.

Listen, I got you, man. I got you, man.

Listen, I cracked a smile and laughed a little bit

when the news broke and I seen Dirk tweet out,

"Now I gotta carry this guy."

Now I gotta carry this guy again like I did all those years ago.

-[Steve] Yeah. -[LeBron laughing]

I stayed quiet about that.

I paid for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner for six years.

-But, you know. -[LeBron laughing]

-Oh man. -That's just a part of the gig.

That's a part of the gig, right

You gotta take the youngster, you know,

let him become a man under your tutelage.

And then what does he do? He shits on you.

[laughing]

Oh man, that's funny.

[jazzy music]

Jason, anything you want us to hit or you go back over,

or do you want us to close it out?

[Jason] No, I don't have anything.

I guess the only question I have is,

who decided to go with the boy band look first?

-Was it you or was it Dirk? -[LeBron laughing]

The old Backstreet Boys look?

-The old NSYNC look? -[Steve] Well, my brother and I,

right before I got traded to Dallas,

we, for whatever reason, bleached our whole head like blonde.

So, of course, when I got traded,

it was like a month or two in, or whatever, six weeks later,

so it had almost grown out.

So I had like the frosted tips.

And you know, sometimes you don't recognize

how bad that's gonna look one day. You know what I mean?

You're just like, "What's the big deal?

I'll just rock up there like this."

Then Dirk had like the bowl cut

-with the Jordan one hoop earring. -[LeBron] Yeah, yeah.

I had the frosted tips.

Man, just history is...

History always reminds us.

[LeBron laughing]

Mind The Game. Mind The Game.