LeBron James' resume continues to grow, and he hopes to soon add a championship with the Lakers to it.
On Monday, he opened a grade school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio and he recently joined a 16-time NBA champion. After a disappointing end to his final season with the Cavaliers, he's ready to get back to championship ways. But that can manifest itself in other ways for the 11-year veteran.
After the opening of his I Promise school, James fielded questions about what he calls "the next step in (his) journey" — joining the Los Angeles franchise.
"What my expectations are for the team? We don't have any right now but we definitely want to be better than we were the previous year," James said. "We want to have championship — you guys know me when it comes to championship habits, that doesn't mean you're bringing in a championship but that means you practice excellence every day and I expect that from not only myself but from my teammates. ... We shouldn't sell ourselves short of that. I think there's months when we're going to be really good and months when we're going to be not so good and that's just going to be because of familiarity."
The Lakers finished the 2017-18 season 35-47 and 11th in Western Conference. But despite the struggles, James saw the potential of a young team that has now bolstered its roster with the likes of Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Michael Beasley — all of whom agreed tp one-year, multimillion dollar contracts this offseason.
"I did my due diligence after the season, and (looked at) the pros and cons of a lot of different teams, including the Cavs, including Philadelphia, including Houston and Los Angeles," James said. "So, it wasn't as quick as it may seem — it just wasn't as July 9th as it was before. So, after talking to my family more than anybody, I felt like this was the next step in my journey.
"There's no reason you become a Laker, you become a Yankee, you become part of Man U, you become part of some franchise and clubs and you don't think about winning championships or winning at the highest level — that's what the history is all about."
James continued with his first sit-down interview after signing with Los Angeles, saying the roster moves that have turned heads and been the brunt of countless memes is full of guys who simply love the game.
"We've just got guys who love to play basketball," he said to Rachel Nichols of ESPN. "At the end of the day, guys that love to play ball and that's what they do every single day — I love that. I love that and I think (Rob) Pelinka and Magic (Johnson) love that as well and I think that's why they made the signings ... guys that just, every day they wake up and they think about the game of basketball and everything else is secondary.
"We look forward to all the chances. Eyebrows are always going to get raised when my name is involved anyway, so it shouldn't even be a surprise."
