Starting Friday, LeBron James will be rivals with James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and the rest of the Houston Rockets.
That’s understandable, since the Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers are set to do battle in a best-of-seven series in the second round of the NBA playoffs. With the three future Hall of Famers all in their 30s in age, they’re aware that they don’t have unlimited time left to pursue a title.
But before the intense series begins, there’s ample time for pleasantries among three clear members of the NBA’s superstar hierarchy.
When asked about Harden, the NBA’s three-time defending scoring champion and an MVP finalist, LeBron said at Thursday’s practice:
With James, it’s how available he is to his teammates, night in and night out. If you look at how many games he plays per year, and how many minutes he plays throughout the course of his career, pretty much he’s always been available. He’s always been in uniform, and he’s been doing this at a high level for a lot of years.
That’s what kind of gets lost in translation, because everyone looks at Euro-stepping and step-back threes. But when you’re available to your teammates, that’s gigantic to any sport, any craft, or anything that you’re doing in life. If you’re just available for someone, they know they can always count on you. That’s pretty much one of the best things that people don’t recognize.
LeBron played with both Harden and Westbrook on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, which won the gold medal. He also shared the court with both at this year’s NBA All-Star Game. Regarding Russ, LeBron said:
With Russ, he’s just an assassin. He’s full-throttle and he could care less what anyone thinks about his game. He goes out and plays his way. and he’s been successful doing that.
They’re two great basketball players, two really good guys — great guys, more importantly. They just do what they do. They go out and they take care of their business, and they pretty much don’t care what anyone says about the way they play.
Game 1 between the Rockets and Lakers is set for 8:00 p.m. Central on Friday, with a national broadcast on ESPN. The Lakers will be the “home” team in Game 1, Game 2, and Game 5 and Game 7 (if necessary) — though with all games played at the Disney World “bubble” in Florida, home-court advantage shouldn’t mean what it usually does.
Games will be played every other day until one team wins four games, with the winner advancing to the Western Conference Finals.
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