LeBron James is in the legacy portion of his career, the awards and titles he racks up now just help cement his place in history, whatever you think that is. Coach David Thorpe, who will be on PBT’s Podcast tomorrow, threw in during that talk that he already sees LeBron as a top five player all time.
Wherever you rank him, nobody that follows him thinks he doesn’t put in the work. He was handed incredible physical gifts, but he puts in the work to get the most out of them. He’s also a student of the game. He’s passionate about being great.
All of that work can take away time and focus from the other important aspects of life. Like family. LeBron talked about that on a recent Road Trippin’ podcast hosted by the Cavs’ Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye.
“I am addicted to the process. I’m addicted to the process,” James said. “It’s so funny. I just told my wife the other day, I apologized to her. She was like ‘What are you apologizing for?’ I said ‘Because the journey that I’m on to want to be the greatest to ever play this game or to the point where no one ever forgets what I accomplished, I’ve at times lost the fact of how important you are to this whole thing. … I want you to understand that along this journey while I’m playing this game there will be times that I lose the fact of how important you and my three kids are – my babies are.’ ”
I’m not going to speculate about what goes on in the James household, but if his wife is anything like my wife admitting your mistakes and flaws — and trying to work on them — is a start. Like everyone with busy lives — including a lot of people reading this — what matters is making sure the time you do spend with family/friends is quality time, focused time. In a world of multitasking, those moments focused on the other are what matters most.