Original subtitles

[host] Who's excited for Mind The Game? Anyone?

[LeBron] We got a wine opener out there?

Do my mom got my wine seal?

Please welcome to the stage, Steve Nash and LeBron James!

-[audience cheering] -[theme music playing]

Yes, sir!

[theme music continues]

-[audience clapping] -[LeBron] Wow.

-Okay. -[audience cheering]

Oh, it's on.

This ain't bad, Steve!

-Not bad, not bad. -Not bad, not bad.

Great turnout.

-Wow. -Great turnout.

-[audience cheering] -Thank you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Much appreciated!

[audience cheering]

Well, this is Mind the Game from Fanatics Fest.

-[LeBron] Yeah. -Brought to you by Nike.

This is actually our last episode of the season.

-Wow. -So, congrats to us. [laughing]

Thank you for all the listens, supports, likes, comments,

subscriptions, everything.

It's been an incredible year for us to kind of get a chance to talk hoops,

hopefully share some of our experiences.

[LeBron] Yep.

Dig into some things around the game

that we're passionate about.

And today will be no different than that.

But a little vino, right?

We don't do an episode without opening up a bottle of wine.

-That's just what we do. -[Steve] That's right.

You know, that's how we always kick it off, man.

But we're happy to be here.

We appreciate y'all. New York City, stand up.

-What's up with y'all? -[audience cheering]

And we just want to say thank you guys for allowing us

to come talk the game of basketball with y'all.

Do it at a high level, and we're super appreciative.

So, Steve, let's do it.

-Let's do it. -[audience cheering]

So who's enjoying the NBA Finals?

[audience cheering]

Game seven. So we have, yeah, game seven, right?

Wow. Wow.

We have the 20th game seven in NBA Finals history,

if the Googles are truthful,

-which is incredible, right? -Right.

Like, we've both played in game sevens.

I want to hear more about your game seven,

particularly in the NBA finals, but...

[LeBron laughs]

Let's also pay some respect to these two incredible teams.

Oklahoma City. Yes, Oklahoma City.

-Any OKC fans out there? -[audience cheering]

Okay, a few. A few.

Any Pacers fans out there?

[audience booing]

-[LeBron] What happened? -[Steven] Why would that be?

[LeBron] Yeah, what's wrong?

-Oh, oh! -Oh, okay, okay.

Okay, I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it.

Well, I mean, unfortunately for Knicks fans,

this Pacers team, though,

we have to say is one of the greatest stories

-in NBA history. -[audience booing]

-[LeBron laughing] -Like it or not.

Like it or not.

I mean, a lot of players that were cast aside

that have been on the trade block,

that have been maybe not "NBA playoff rotation guys,"

quote, unquote, who have absolutely come together

to play fantastic basketball.

We've said it before on the pod,

coaching staff deserves a lot of credit, too.

But you see a lot of the ingredients of great basketball teams,

IQ, connectivity, toughness!

Their defense has gone to another level.

What have you seen in the Pacers?

You just said it perfectly, Steve.

When it comes to the two teams that's in the finals right now,

obviously, both of 'em are respected and have earned it.

And with the Pacers team,

obviously, you guys saw a lot of 'em too, the last round.

But, you know, the way they moved the ball,

the pace and space that they play with,

I think, you know, the best gift that the Pacers have

is the unselfishness of Halliburton.

I think his ability to get off the ball early, you know,

get the ball back in semi-transition, but just the ball is always,

the ball has so much energy,

and to see what the Pacers are doing, you know,

with their pacing space, you know, getting the ball up,

you know, letting Pascal go against the defense

before a set, you know,

I think it's just a great way to the game of basketball

that the Pacers are playing right now.

For sure. I would say this about Tyrese,

I think he's one of the greatest, simple early passers I've ever seen.

You know, sometimes, when you have great vision like Tyrese,

you wanna hold it to make that killer pass.

-That home run. -You think, "I can get something better."

-[LeBron] Right. -And you might hold it for a second.

I think we've both felt that. But sometimes he just gets rid of it.

And what that does is it makes the defense unsettled.

'Cause they can't cheat, they can't help, they're always in a bind.

So I think he's one of the greatest, simple early passers

of all time and a big part of their success. For sure.

What's up, young fellas?

-[audience cheering] -[LeBron laughing]

You see someone up here you like?

[audience cheering]

-Yes, sir. I see you. -That's great. That's great.

Well, let's talk about some things that we learned this year in the NBA.

You know, I got three bullet points.

The first one being pace and depth.

-[LeBron] Yeah. -Tell me a little bit,

your perspective on how those two fit together and how that's changed

compared to maybe four, five, six, seven years ago.

I think it's been present all year,

with how quickly Cleveland ran their sets from start to finish.

Obviously, the two teams that we have in the finals,

you know, that pace and that depth,

to be able to continue the energy, the energy does not die down

when they make substitution patterns, you know?

We talked about in one of our pods when TJ McConnell comes into the game.

-[Steve] Yeah. -Their pace actually goes higher.

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, when Alex Caruso

and those guys come in the game, and also, you know, those guys,

-it just ramps up. -Yeah.

So to have that pace and that quickness,

getting in and outta your sets, having the depth that they have,

it allows you to always be energized, and those guys are playing, like,

they're playing high-level basketball

as close to 48 minutes, as we've seen in a long time.

It's a great, you nailed it.

And I think, we went through an era where we were trying to find three stars.

But what happens when you have a team built on three stars,

if it's not built from the ground floor up, like through the draft,

when you sign free agents what happens is,

one, you're at risk for injuries derailing your team.

But two, the game is played so fast and physically nowadays,

the three stars have a hard time keeping that level at both ends of the floor.

-Absolutely. -It falls apart on both ends.

So we're seeing these two teams with depth.

Rick Carlisle's rolling out guys who weren't even on the team.

Tony Bradley wasn't even in rotation.

Guys are fluctuating in and out the rotation.

Like Mathurin played himself out of the rotation

at times this year, having a big impact in the finals.

So that depth becomes so important

so they can keep up the physicality and pace.

It's been really interesting to see the two teams,

one built from the ground floor, one just built by, you know,

quote unquote "scraps around the league" they put together

that were undervalued and we're seeing them come together

and play beautiful basketball. So I agree with you...

No, you gotta think some of the biggest guys

in this finals that's making an impact are, like you said,

that was guys that were even given up from a previous team

to look at Nesmith.

-Toppin. -You know, Obi Toppin.

-Sorry. -You know, I feel like here,

Obi Toppin didn't get an opportunity to flourish as much.

Nesmith, he was drafted by Boston.

Didn't get an opportunity to flourish.

You look at Hartenstein, you know, now he's with OKC,

you know, what he was able to do for y'all franchise last year,

but bring that toughness to the OKC Thunder.

Alex Caruso, obviously, we've seen what he's been able to do,

but all these complementary guys is what build teams.

It's what build winning programs and winning franchises.

And like you said, you know, I played in the era, as well,

as of the Big Three era, you know,

but it's looking like now the game is starting to shift again to

how can we create the most depth,

but also, how can we create the most energy life?

How can we have the most shelf life out on the floor?

To be able to sustain an injury

or sustain a run throughout the course of a game

where guys are coming in and it's affections all game long.

-So you said it. -Right.

Right now, you have to be able to continue to play

with pace and physicality.

If you're pace and your physicality drops...

You're gonna go through a period

where you're gonna give up a 10, 15 point run.

How we doing here?

-Cheers. -Cheers.

-[audience cheering] -Cheers, everybody.

[audience chattering]

-Yeah, not bad. -Not bad. Not bad.

So the next bullet point,

you guys want LeBron to wave again?

[audience cheering]

There we go.

There we go.

The next bullet point I have is defensive speed.

Teams are playing with pace, they're spreading the floor so far.

You have to have speed, you gotta have an abundance of speed

to be able to cover bigger spaces than we had to cover in previous generations.

[LeBron] You look at the two teams now when you talk about the defensive speed.

They're so far different in contrast, but they're kind of similar and same.

You know, you look at OKC,

it's a lot of guys that's super scrappy, super flying around.

They do a good job of being in the gaps, getting out the gaps, making you drive,

and then when the ball hits the paint, it's like a swarm.

All four or five guys are in the paint,

either reaching for the ball or getting taps,

loose balls, and if the ball hits the ground, first to the ground,

and you look at the contrasts with them

and now the Pacers, they have a lot more lankier guys.

You know, like you said, Obi Toppin , Pascal Siakam.

You know, Nesmith, you know, uh, Miles Turner,

you know, a lot of, even Tyrese is lanky, as well.

So, you know, contrasts and styles are very different,

but the speed is the way they play and the physicality that they play

-with defensively are very similar. -And mobility.

You gotta be able to move in different directions,

cover guys with different responsibilities.

You don't have many teams in our league that have two or three guys

that could pick up 94 feet and make you turn.

The Pacers have Nesmith, Nembhard.

You know, TJ McConnell, those guys pick up.

OKC, they come in with Alex Caruso, Lou Dort, you know,

Cason Wallace, all those guys are coming in and picking up 94 feet.

And they just changing the game defensively,

trying to wear on you.

So there's not many teams in our league

that could put three or four guys out on the floor

that could pick up 94 feet and just make you change directions.

And that's why these two teams are in the finals right now.

Another indicator of the depth for me is matchups.

Like, you know, this game is about fights, like styles make fights.

And so let's break it down to like,

even like individual matchups, you know, against the Knicks.

You know, Nembhard really struggled with Jalen Brunson.

But Nesmith was able to cause him some problems.

It flips.

So, now, Nembhard, who grew up playing against Shai,

is able to cause Shai some problems.

-Right. -Nesmith struggles with Shai,

so it's always about a little bit of styles.

One that I think is really fascinating to me,

and I wanna give him a big shout out, is TJ McConnell.

He is finding his way into the paint relentlessly

against incredible defenders.

-He's getting by Alex Caruso. -Right, right.

He's getting by guys like Jalen Williams.

These are elite defenders.

TJ's a matchup problem for them with his pace,

his shiftiness, getting underneath,

he's got his underneath dribble, his little fadeaway.

It's so fascinating to me to realize elite defenders

can still struggle with different players. You've seen that in your career.

When you look at TJ McConnell and what he's able to do,

I think we all look at it like, "How was he able to be so successful?"

You look at TJ, he's not the tallest guy, not the fastest guy.

Doesn't jump, doesn't have a huge vertical.

You know, but I think it's here and it's here and it's will.

-Yeah. -I think the one thing about TJ McConnell

is that when you look at a scout report,

and you read about guys, you know what their go-to moves is,

you know what they will want to do, you know what they least like to do.

TJ... TJ, you don't know what he's going to do.

It's just so random with TJ.

You don't know when he's gonna pull up

and shoot his mid-range fade away in the paint.

You don't know if he's going to dribble and Nash dribble

all up underneath the basket, and then go to his fade away.

-Yeah. -And he's doing that

not only when Alex Caruso is guarding him,

-Cason Wallace is guarding him. -Yeah.

He's even done it against Hartenstein

-and also Chet. -Right, Chet.

Right, yeah.

[LeBron] So he's doing that versus everybody,

so I think him not being a player that you kind of,

you key in on certain things that he do, you know,

what he like to go to has made him be so successful

-in the finals so far. -For sure.

Like you said, you don't know what he's gonna do.

One thing he is not looking for is the three,

which makes it fascinating, 'cause you know

he's not gonna pull up for three, so you think, let me give him a gap,

but he uses that gap.

-He gets momentum. -Yeah.

-A la Rajon Rondo. -Right.

That's what made Rondo so great.

The fact that you knew he was not gonna be taking any threes,

but he'd eat up the space, and by the time he was up on you, it was too late.

And I think TJ has definitely learned. He's found that rhythm

-and he's a big-time player. -For sure. He uses pace,

but also uses change of pace and the entire floor.

So it doesn't matter if he has to beat his guy at half court

or his guy's dropping to the free-throw line

or he's on the sideline and he fakes a pitch, and he goes.

Just incredible intelligence, and he's been, it sounds weird to say,

the biggest matchup nightmare in a way, other than Pascal.

I think Hali's more of a,

-that sets the table. -[LeBron] Right.

[Steve] Pascal's and TJ have been a matchup problem.

[LeBron] I absolutely agree.

You don't know what TJ's going to do out on the floor.

So it's hard to scout for a guy like that, you know.

-Yeah. -And you know,

like you said, Pascal being a matchup problem for anybody.

-Yeah. -But also TJ's

pace and space, man, and his will

to go out there and dominate at his level. It's fascinating to watch, man.

-Yeah. -You just, it's great.

-It's great basketball. -Yeah, yeah.

[theme music playing]

Well, shifting gears a little bit, you know,

early in the year, the NBA took a little bit of a beating.

I think publicly, people thought, "Oh, the game's the same.

The regular season doesn't matter.

People are playing the same style."

You know, we really focused in on that kind of consistently

during this podcast season to kind of figure out, like,

what is true here?

-What is... -[audience cheers]

Yeah.

-What is great about our game, right? -Yeah.

And we've come to the conclusion, we hope you'll agree,

-the game is amazing. -The game is the best it's ever been.

The game is as good as it's ever been, for sure.

[Steve] The pace and space era, a lot of threes, you know,

some people can have a problem with that

but the reality is, that's not going away.

-We're stretching the floor. -Right.

We're playing with pace. We're playing more jazz than classical.

We're not playing off the same playbook every time now.

We're playing read-and-react basketball.

So I think once people start to recognize...

-Yeah. -That people are reading

and reacting, using their brains, playing on the fly,

it's a beautiful thing to watch.

No, absolutely. I mean, you just said it best.

You know, Steve, I think the playmaking that goes on in our league, I mean,

I remember we did an earlier pod this year

in one of our episodes, and you told me, like,

in the 1995 season, you know, out of the top 10 points per game leaders,

literally it was only one guy

-in the top five in assists. -Right.

And that was Michael Jordan at the time.

You know, and you look at it now, 25, 30 years later...

-Right. -And out of the top 10

scorers in the NBA, you have five or six guys

-in the top 10 of assists. -Right.

You know, so the playmaking in our game, the defense,

the different matchups that we see in our game,

the different variables that you can see defensively,

man-to-man, zone.

Guys are even pressing at times, two-to-one press

that we haven't seen. I think that's great.

It's a beautiful thing to watch our game

continue to evolve, and I think the sky's the limit.

We're gonna continue to do that. You know, it's beautiful.

Well, I have to give you a lot of credit for the playmaking.

You know, like LeBron said, you know, nowadays, you can't just be a scorer.

If you're just a scorer, you come off the bench.

You're a sixth man, seventh man, see if you're hot that night.

Nowadays, if you want to be an elite player,

you have to be a scorer and a playmaker,

and I think you were a huge, huge part of that trend.

-You know, 100%. -[audience cheers]

[LeBron] Appreciate it, yeah.

100%. Yes. Yes.

What we've seen happen, and I'll use LeBron as one of the pioneers

or, you know, one of the trendsetters in this way,

is we're seeing a big physical athlete that can score,

but is also passing, playmaking, but also playing cat and mouse,

dissecting the defense, reading the defense,

making the defense uncomfortable, making them make hard decisions.

So now, we're seeing the byproduct of that throughout the league.

When I came in the league way, way ago In the nineties, like LeBron said,

guys would just come out and score,

but nowadays the defense have gotten more sophisticated.

You have to read and react and play.

So LeBron coming in the league, let's not forget,

the leading scorer in NBA history right here.

-[audience cheers] -The leading scorer.

You know, but also one of the greatest passers

and playmakers, right,

and one of the best minds for the game. Mind the game?

-Minds for the game... -Mind the game.

...out there, so you put that together.

What are we seeing now?

You know, we're seeing guys like Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić.

You go around the league, you're seeing so many guys

that are taking the ball and manipulating the defense

and deciding, "How are you playing me?

Okay, I'll go score the ball this possession.

Oh, you wanna load up on me? I'm gonna go make plays for my teammate."

So this trend for me is helping elevate the game

of basketball, because our lead players

are able to do more than one or two things.

They're able to do a bit of everything,

Swiss Army knife for what the team needs, while still having a huge usage rate.

[LeBron] You couldn't have said it better.

I think our league is at the best place that it's ever been.

You know, and... it's beautiful to watch.

You mentioned Luka, you mentioned, you know, the Joker.

-We could go on, yeah. -Giannis, you know,

so many guys not only can score the ball,

rebound the ball, pass the ball, facilitate, think with their mind.

It's a beautiful thing, man, and you know, and we go back to,

we looking at OKC and Indiana,

both teams built up identities and cohesiveness,

innovative offenses and defenses.

But it's just beautiful to watch that,

when the ball moves, player movement,

everybody feeling a great rhythm and that's what the game is all about.

And everybody who's on the floor feel like

they're important to the success, you know,

and, you know, to see that with OKC

and see that with the Pacers now, you know.

Listen, the two best words in sports is "game seven."

-[audience cheers] -All right.

And we all should be lucky to be able to witness

a game seven tomorrow night for the NBA Finals

for the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

-It's gonna be a beautiful. -[Steve] I can't wait.

Yeah, absolutely, that's it.

[light audience cheers]

All right, we got any, we got a bunch of, hold up.

We got a lot of Knick fans in here, huh?

[audience cheers]

Yeah, we got any Brooklyn Net fans in here?

-[audience boos] -Oh, man.

-Damn, Steve. -[Steve] Yeah.

Was that boo for the for the Nets or for Steve?

-Which one was it? -[Steve laughs]

So the Knicks fans, y'all good?

[audience cheers]

Y'all going to the finals next year?

-[audience cheers] -Oh, we're gonna see.

We gonna see. We'll see.

You know, one of the things I would also say

that's been great about the league

is watching offense and defense evolve and push the other.

-[LeBron] Yeah. -Evolve and push the other.

So we're seeing innovative defenses.

We've talked about it.

Switching defenses.

Which basically take you outta your offense.

You wanna run all these beautiful sets? We're gonna switch all that.

Now you're on the clock and gotta play ISO basketball and it's a spacing game.

That's why we started playing with pace.

Let's get up and down before they set up, not run sets so they can switch.

Trying to play faster, a little more pace, less walk it down and run sets.

So the defenses adapted, they start switching everything.

Okay, the offenses start speeding up, right?

So now the defenses adapt again.

Let's go some zone, let's pack the paint.

Like we say, we're giving up threes, that's a killer.

No, our rim is a killer. Let's pack the paint.

Let's keep people out of the paint. Let's be in the gaps, like OKC.

You're seeing the Pacers do it, too.

We're willing to give up threes,

especially on contest, as long as you don't get in on our rim all night.

So you're seeing that evolve.

Now, the latest one that I think was fascinating this year,

coupled with the zone defense, and the matchup zones,

and going zone to men has been the cutting.

-Yeah. -So Indiana's a great example,

but there's been others. Cleveland did a great job.

Typically, in the last 10 years, we've tried to keep

-the floor space for our playmakers. -Right.

Give LeBron as much space as possible.

My son's teams, they try get shooters

so I could get to work, get in the middle, cause problems with the defense.

But what we're seeing now is that teams are getting so good at sitting

-in the lap of the best player. -Yeah.

-So, guys are starting to cut. -[LeBron] Yeah, yeah.

Indiana's taking it to a new extreme,

we've talked about, is this where it's going?

From the foul line up, you have players flying

in and outta that space regardless of spacing,

creating confusion, and willing to just move it,

and play, and trust it.

You think this is where teams are gonna start to evolve?

Well, you know our league has always been a copycat league.

And I think that teams will try,

but you also have to have the right personnel

to be able to do the things that OKC and Indiana's doing.

Every team is not built the way that they're built.

So I think the best thing about our league,

and the best thing about coaching in our league,

is being able to adapt to the personnel that you have.

I just don't think that every team has the makeup

to be able to play with the pace and space of Indiana and OKC.

But the good thing about our league

is what makes coaching so great in our league,

is being able to adapt to what you have,

adapt to your personnel, adapt to how you guys play.

And then you start that from day one, this is how we're gonna play,

and there's gonna be tweaks throughout the season.

Maybe that didn't work out quite well for us early on,

but you have a nucleus of how you want to play,

and follow that throughout the whole season,

and into the postseason, and hopefully being able to play

for the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

But it's all about your personnel.

If you have the right personnel, coaching staff,

you'll put them in the right position to succeed.

So it's a great point, I think, like high school and college teams,

a lot of times, the coach has been there for a while,

has a blueprint, this is how we do it.

Of course, you adapt, and you adjust to your team.

NBA teams, I think the variance of adaptation is huge.

I don't think the Pacers set out this year

and said, "This is what we're gonna be like."

I think they built, adapted, built again,

they added, they subtracted, they built. Same with OKC,

they continue to evolve.

It's kind like a living organism, right?

I think it's fascinating to see how a team starts the year, what they add,

what they subtract, how they evolve.

I mean, you've been on championship teams.

Do you think that's even going at a higher cadence nowadays?

I think so. I think you said it right there, man.

I think the game continues to evolve, and I think coaching continues to evolve,

and they're seeing how much they can press the limit

on what they have,

and even going further, but also more importantly,

like we always talk about, it looks chaotic,

and it looks random, but it's not.

And when you have guys with good IQ and cohesiveness,

they're able to do things on the floor that,

to the normal fan, you would think it's random.

You would think it's chaotic,

but it's actually very well thought out,

and very well practiced, and very well demanded.

-Details. -Every single detail, every single day.

So I think it's a beautiful thing.

More teams are gonna try to adapt it.

More teams are gonna try to play with it,

because it creates... the one thing about our league

is being able to create confusion on the floor for defenses.

Like you said, there's so many different ways

that people are throwing you defensively, man-to-man, zone,

two-to-one press, box and one, triangle and two,

they're trying everything.

So to be able to create the most confusion you can offensively,

it's gonna make you more successful than any team in our league.

And I think that's gonna be adapted by a lot of teams.

So that adaptation process can be tricky, right?

The number one thing about adapting is buy-in.

-[LeBron] Yeah. Yeah. -Right? Buy-in.

Winning is a choice.

Winning is a choice, and you have to buy in and sacrifice.

I want to hear from you a little bit about the sacrifices

some of your championship teams made.

What that process was like.

You start a season, everyone's like, "I'm gonna get off this year.

This is my role. And it's always slightly inflated.

At some point, everyone has to sacrifice a bit of themselves

if you wanna be a championship caliber team.

The only way to win a championship is

that everybody is a MVP in they role, you know,

and able to sacrifice their own personal stats,

personal beliefs, for the betterment of the team.

There's a pecking order in our team. You guys know who the stars is.

You guys know who the role players are.

You guys know who the garbage guys are.

You know, come in and do the garbage work, you know, first to the floor,

taking the charges, you know, do the things.

You guys know who the vocal leaders is.

You know who the silent assassins are.

There's a, there's a... When that thing is met,

and it's, and it's laid out not only by the coaches...

See, the problem with our league sometimes is that

players are always looking for the coaches to make those things happen.

It's the players in the locker room that hold each other accountable.

That's when you get the best team.

When guys can come to the locker room and hold each other accountable

and know how to talk to each other.

Either I'm bad mouthing you or you're saying something to me

and not take it personal because we have one common goal,

and that's to win a championship.

When you win a championship, everybody eats,

everybody gets paid.

Everybody's seen, everybody's loved.

And that's the only thing that only matters.

But it only, it can only happen...

The coaching staff can only do so much.

The coaching staff gonna put you a game plan together.

They're gonna tell you, "This is what we need to do.

This is how we gonna execute.

We're gonna give you the game plan."

But the fucking players gotta go out and do the job.

[crowd cheering loudly]

You know? And when the players hold each other accountable,

that's when the job gets done.

And that has happened all four times in my career.

I've been able to win four championships.

And that was one of the number one ingredients,

obviously going on, getting the job done, too,

but just holding each other accountable.

Great message for young players out there, too.

Not just in the NBA, high school, college, learning to play,

the responsibility of trying to pick up your teammates. Set an example.

One through 12 has a leadership responsibility, right?

It's not just the quote unquote "leader"

Everyone on the team leads by how they behave.

Did they get there on time? Did they do extra work?

Did they support their teammates?

Talk a little bit about your finals teams.

Win or lose, playing that way to get to the finals

has gotta be like basketball nirvana to be on a team that you trust,

and you know every night is gonna give themselves a chance to win.

I think the best feeling for me, as a player, is that

when the national anthem is going on, and I usually stand on the end,

is that when I can look down the row,

and I know that I got 11 other guys,

thirteen other guys that's in the foxhole with me.

And I know for sure

that if it's a grenade thrown in a foxhole,

-we gonna all stand there. -[Steve] Yeah.

My shooter, we want to die for this game.

You know? And that is a beautiful feeling,

where you can look to your left, and look down the row,

either if I was teammates with Dwayne Wade,

Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, James Jones, Mike Miller,

you know, the rest of the crew. Or if I looked to my left

and I saw, you know, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, you know,

JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson,

Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson, or Anthony Davis,

you know, Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo, you know,

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, you know, Danny Green.

And looking at my left, just knowing guys that you know,

that's willing to die for it on the floor and be in a foxhole with you.

There's no better feeling than that.

There's no better feeling than that. Absolutely.

[theme music playing]

How y'all doing out there? Y'all good?

[crowd cheering]

Do we have time to open it up? Do we have some fan questions?

I think it's time to hit some questions.

What do you think? Should we do this?

Anyone send in a tweet with a question?

Did you guys send y'all questions in?

Okay. I think we got some, right?

-Yeah. -We gotta have some.

We got some questions.

[Jason] Alright. Question number one

from Nahil, "Which player would each of you want to play

with from a previous era before you were drafted?"

So, which player from a previous era that we would want to play with?

-Yeah. -Wow.

-[Steve] Man... -You first, man.

There's so many.

-There's so many, like... -So many.

you know, like one for me being a point guard,

like Magic Johnson.

[LeBron] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, man.

Was, I mean, I remember just how he inspired me as a kid.

You know, I don't know if I'd want to play with him,

but my hero, the one person I tried to emulate was Isiah Thomas.

You know, smaller guard that was just super competitive.

And then you go back, you know, Oscar Robertsons,

Kareem Abdul-Jabbars, Wilt Chamberlain,

Bill Russell, all, you can go forever.

So that's a, an amazing question.

It's hard for me to pick one.

Like I said, my hero was Isiah Thomas.

Magic Johnson was just crazy inspirational.

But if I had to have like maybe someone that complemented me, you know,

that's a fascinating question that I'd love to think about.

You know? 'Cause the game changes.

-[LeBron] Right. -Right? The eras change.

Like, I got to play with Dirk Nowitzki and Amar'e Stoudemire.

-[LeBron] Right. -Like two great guys that,

we loved playing together,

could complement each other, worked off each other...

Let me think about that for a minute.

-What about you? -When you talk about inspiration,

there was nobody more inspiring to me than Michael Jordan, I mean...

-[crowd cheers] -Y'know, and, y'know...

Y'know, for me,

I think our games would've complimented, as well.

MJ was a flat-out scorer, y'know?

He was a score, score, he had a scorer's mentality, if I had to pick him.

But I know I can't pick him,

because I know how social media works.

You gonna be like,

"Oh, you want to play with Michael Jordan, too?"

You done play with everybody else, goddamn it!"

I didn't ask the question. I'm only answering it, guys!

I didn't ask the question.

But MJ was an inspiration.

Anfernee Penny Hardaway was an inspiration to me.

Grant Hill was an inspiration to me growing up.

Like that point four Scottie Pippen, that point four guys,

like Penny, like Grant Hill, like Scottie,

those guys inspired me because I wanted to be that point four,

so those are some guys.

I can see the headline already,

"LeBron wants to play with Michael Jordan."

Like, I see it already. It's weird.

-Don't be weird. -I like it.

I mean, all the guys he named, I think I did play against,

so it doesn't really count for me.

I was gonna say, I think of Kobe,

but I actually played with Kobe in the Olympics,

so, y'know, rest his soul. Great Kobe, great Kobe.

-[Steve] Amazing. -[crowd cheers]

-Next question. -Our great director, Jason Gallagher,

he's giving us questions. What do you got?

[Jason] Okay, this one's from Mack Boy.

Question for Steve. "What advice would you give to LeBron

as he nears the back half of his career?"

Well, that's a great question.

Y'know, unsolicited advice, but the biggest thing that I would say

is that I understand a lot of where LeBron is right now,

and having done this podcast with him,

he's actually approaching it in an unbelievable manner.

So my advice would be continue.

And what is that, what is he continuing?

We talked about in episode one,

it's about the process for him.

It's about adhering to a standard of trying to get the most out of his game,

his body, his mind, every single day. That's what this is all about.

I think I want to hear you say this, talk about it,

but that's a way of life, right?

Like, how does that feel every day

to still be so deep in your process at 40 years old and dominating?

I mean, the process is the only thing that matters to me.

Y'know, I think when you fall in love with the process of what you want to do,

and that's with anything, that's not just basketball,

that's whatever you guys are inspiring to do,

you have to fall in love with the process.

The end result will happen organically,

and it'll make it so much more worth your while

when you fall in love with the process, okay?

Like, don't cheat the process. Don't cut corners.

Fall in love with the process

and everything else will take care of itself.

So that's what I've been able to do for my career,

so that's my words of advice to all you guys, the process.

[crowd cheers]

And that goes for everything. That's not just basketball.

-That's life, man. -Whatever you want to do in life...

That's a fulfilling, inspiring way to live.

So all you kids out there, like, really try to think about that.

Like, what does that mean for you?

Like, maybe you haven't found your thing yet,

but practice it... It's school, sports, music, whatever it is,

practice it, try to get closer to your process.

What is a good process system?

He's mastered it, and that's why you're seeing the results.

One thing I'd also like to say that I really admire about LeBron

is the way he adapted this season to playing with Luka, y'know?

[crowd cheers]

That takes a lot of maturity.

It takes a lot of... sacrifice.

He approached this as a gift and an opportunity

to make a team as good as it could possibly be.

Now, it was slammed together quick, y'know, they lost early in the playoffs,

but I think we saw the seeds of a team that was this close

to going deep in the playoffs, making a run for a title.

As that roster builds, the possibility's there.

You can't do that unless you're willing to sacrifice

and grow and play slightly different,

play in a way that compliments your teammates.

So my advice would be those two things,

continue to find that sacrifice.

It's not like his numbers dipped.

He just did it in different ways.

But that's hard for players who have played 15, 18, 20, 22?

-Twenty-two. -Twenty-two years in the league, so...

[crowd cheers]

Jay, we got one more!

-One more, last question, Jay. -[Jason] Yeah, one more.

Rock, Rock asked the question,

"We went from the Big Three era to the Era of Depth.

What do you believe could be the next iteration

of roster development that defines team success in the future?"

That's an easy answer for me.

If you find a guy like Wemby.

If you could find a guy... Oh, my goodness, Wemby,

I was just standing next to him while we were shooting The Shop.

This guy, I feel like he's grown

another two or three inches for sure in the off-season.

But I mean, the game is gonna continue to evolve.

Y'know, like you said, the Big Three era had it's moment,

the Big Three era has always had its moment, y'know?

Way before myself, D-Wade, and Bosh came together,

y'know, you had, y'know, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West

and Elgin Baylor, they played together, y'know?

You had so many guys that's the Big Three era, so...

-[Steve] Bird, Parish, McHale. -Bird, Parish, McHale, exactly.

Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, y'know?

So, like, y'know,

the Big Three era will always kind of be there,

but, y'know, having depth, y'know, being able to have the ability

to bring in multiple guys that could do multiple things,

I think that's the era that we may fall into.

But whatever era and however the game shapes itself,

just know, guys, that we listening to y'all

and we gonna put the best product on the floor

every single night, because we hear y'all talking,

and we know y'all love our game, so I appreciate it,

I really thank you, for real.

Thanks a million.

[theme music playing]

-Two! -Two!

-Season two! -Season two!

-Thank you! Thank you very much! -Thank you, guys!

[theme music continues]

After you, buddy.

[crowd cheers]