LeBron James' advice to his 18-year-old self: work hard, protect your family and mental space, stay focused, and enjoy the journey.
The visiting Detroit Pistons spoiled LeBron James' 41st birthday on Tuesday with a 128-106 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron, now in his 23rd NBA season, reflected on the Lakers' recent struggles and shared advice he would give to his 18-year-old self.
"It's a lot of advice I would give him," James said. "I would just say, just keep the main thing the main thing. Work hard. There's no substitute for hard work. I think hard work and dedication, if you want to be great, is going to pay off.
"Keep the blinders on. As much as they praise you, there's even triple, quadruple of people trying to bring you down and want to tear you down every single day. So, protect your family, protect your mental space. It's a lot more, but just go out and have fun, enjoy the ride, because you never know when it's going to come to an end, so it goes fast."
Credit IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect - Scanpix
LeBron also admitted that something has changed for him in Year 23.
"I don't know if you've watched any of our games this year, but I haven't really been on the ball as much," he said. "I've been playing off the ball a lot. It's something I can get back into, but it's still, you gotta get back into the rhythm of that, you know.
"AR and Luka gets us into our offense, Marcus [Smart] has now stepped up to kind of help with that role, Nick Smith is going to help us with that role as well. If I need to do that and the coaches ask me to do that, then I can do that, but I've been playing mostly off the ball this year."
The Lakers are now 20-11 on the season.
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