Following a win over the New York Knicks, Lakers star LeBron James dropped a wise take on what it takes to be great

In 40 minutes of action against the white-hot New York Knicks, 39-year-old LeBron James led the way for the Los Angeles Lakers, scoring 24 points in a 113-105 win that snapped a nine-game Knicks winning streak. By no means was this any sort of defining game in the illustrious 21-year career of LeBron James — it wouldn’t even crack the top five of his best games at Madison Square Garden — but the performance itself along with the meaningful message the King delivered in the locker room after the game encapsulates what has made him arguably the greatest player in the history of the National Basketball Association.

Among those who identify or qualify as LeBron James haters, there seems to be a false narrative that has been created about the man who was dubbed “King James” and “The Chosen One” when he was just 18 years old. The perception that they’ve manufactured is that LeBron James is someone who was hand-picked by the NBA to be the heir apparent to Michael Jordan, and all of the success he’s had has been by design. Every award and championship is relentlessly under attack, with detractors doing their best to put asterisks next to each and every thing LeBron James has managed to accomplish. They knock the way he cryptically handles adversity, how he complains about missed calls, and his inability to ever become an elite free throw shooter, while also still trying to push the “LeBron James isn’t clutch” agenda, which has routinely been disproven for at least a full decade now.

Perhaps worst of all, there’s this misguided notion that LeBron James represents what some fans believe is wrong with professional basketball. As the primary catalyst of the player empowerment era, people seem to believe that LeBron is somehow single-handedly responsible for massive contracts being handed out to mediocre players, load management keeping stars out of more games than ever before, superstars forcing trades more regularly than they have in the past, and players being more friendly with one another off the court. For what it’s worth, not all of those things are necessarily bad.

In reality, LeBron James embodies what the NBA should be about. Nobody has had a longer and more successful career than LeBron James, and yeah, plenty of that is due to God-given talent, but what gets lost in all of this is how magnificently and consistently LeBron has improved his game over his career, how much time and effort he has spent taking care of his body, and how he’s become maybe the most important ambassador of the sport… someone who has paid the proper respect and admiration for the great players who have come before him. And keep in mind, he’s done this while becoming the first active athlete who is a billionaire, and the first athlete who has been criticized in the 24/7 hot take sports news culture. Aside from The Decision, I can’t think of a time when the fame and fortune that comes with being “LeBron James” has caused LeBron James to make a public misstep — and even The Decision raised millions of dollars for charities, so it wasn’t all bad. 

For two decades, LeBron James has been living proof of the message he delivered in a Madison Square Garden locker room. And even though he’s still giving Father Time one hell of a fight, the end of the road is coming up sooner rather than later. So allow me to echo a message that many other writers have shared: appreciate this man while you still can.