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PORTLAND, Ore. – As LeBron James begins his 16th season as the Los Angeles Lakers start their season against the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, the three-time champion is begging Luke Walton to keep him on the field.
"I'm always cool," said James after his shooting Thursday morning. "All my coaches want to find a way to reduce my minutes, I do not stop telling them I'm strong enough to play most minutes, but they do not listen, so it's okay." Like it. "
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Kirk Goldsberry is interested in LeBron's attacking course and what it means for this new test with the Lakers.
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We've covered you before, during and after the Lakers first game in Portland.
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Nike debuted with the LeBron line in 2003 by putting "King James" on a poster surrounded by lions. This image serves as inspiration for his sneakers tonight.
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Earlier this week, Walton had announced that he would play a "reasonable" number of minutes to James this season. Last year, James led the league with 36.9 minutes per game.
But that does not mean that Walton will keep James on the bench too often.
"LeBron will play a lot of minutes, yes," Walton said Thursday. "It will be a recurring theme for us this year."
James will turn 34 in December and played sparsely during the pre-season, but Walton said his star showed no sign of aging.
"I told him that his legs seemed to be getting younger as the training camp continued," Walton said. "It works normally in the other way, but it goes higher, it goes faster the more we play and we play, it 's like I said: there' s a match tonight. We are obviously happy to play regular season games now, but it looks great. "
Walton also commented on the mentality that James brought to the young core of the Lakers.
"He's good," said Walton. "He's a pretty serious guy, but there are moments of laughter and joy that mingle, but he has that stony look."
It seems like for the first time in almost a decade, James' team is not considered a lock for a championship. But that did not affect his mental approach to the season and his efforts for a fourth ring.
"It's only my goal.This has always been my goal … maybe over the last 10 or 11 years where I've felt like a championship." "said James. "I want to win championships, think about them and think about them, I think when you have championship habits, you have championship ideas and things come to fruition.
"Obviously, there's only one champion at the end of the road, and you can not dictate victories and defeats, but you can approach every day like a champion, and if you do that, you're put to succeed, either individually or in team, or whatever the case.
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