LeBron James has played with many great players during his long and illustrious career in the NBA. The same was the case for the 2020 NBA Championship-winning Los Angeles Lakers squad.
Although the main stars of the team were LeBron and Anthony Davis, the likes of Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo played crucial roles as veterans. If you had asked someone in the 2000s that Dwight and James would someday play on the same team together, they would have laughed.
Also, the two didn’t share a locker room until Howard was out of his prime. Anyway, after winning a ring with the Lakers, Dwight joined the Philadelphia 76ers for the next season.
But he made his return to the Lakers roster during the 2021-22 NBA season. While he might not have been much of a help to the team, he certainly learned a lot of James. Dwight recently gave an answer to why James is always looking at stat sheets. And believe us, it’s not why he can statpad.
Via Sportskeeda:
“He’s always watching the stat sheets. It’s not like he’s looking to pad stats. He’s looking to figure out with numbers how can he be more effective. ‘How can this player be more effective? I gotta get this guy shots here. I gotta do this for this guy.’ He’s just really keeping account of what’s going on. It’s like how he do his business. He do it the same way.
“Everything he’s doing, he’s strategically doing. He’s playing chess. That’s something I got just watching him with how he moves. Everything he’s doing, he’s positioning himself and the people around him to make sure that everyone is successful in whatever field it may be.”
Considering James is one of the smartest players in the league, it’s not a surprise that he wants to be a step ahead of his opponents. In order to do that, he needs to properly strategize and be ready for anything his opponents could throw at him.
But there is only so much that James can do all on his own. It was proved in the 2021-22 season, where LeBron was the only good thing about the Lakers. Will James win the fifth ring of his career next season? Only time will tell.
