LeBron James made his season debut 14 games after everyone else on the Lakers, as he missed the first month of action due to sciatica issues. At age 41, taking care of his health is the primary concern for LeBron James at this point.
Therefore, to accelerate his return to the court, he initially decided to give up wine and dessert and eventually fully eliminated wine and chocolate-chip cookies from his diet.
The Lakers’ veteran superstar recorded an episode of his podcast ‘Mind the Game’ with Steve Nash and revealed what was going through his mind when he made that decision.
“It’s a true story of when I stopped drinking. Okay. So, I wasn’t playing as obviously as the season started. You know, so I needed to give up something. I got to sacrifice something, and I actually did two things that I love very much, and that is drinking wine and my chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I completely took it out,” revealed James at the beginning of the episode.
“So I was like, “Okay, I wasn’t playing. I missed, obviously, I’m well documented, missed the first 14 games of the season. Wasn’t playing in November. Missed all of training camp and everything.” So I was like, all right, I’ve got to take something out. I got to sacrifice something, you know.”
“And for the whole month of November, I was like, I’m going to do no desserts and no wine, no liquor, no nothing for the whole month of November. And yeah, I did that. And I actually went all the way once I got to December, I was like, ‘Oh, keep going.'”
“I kept going. And I didn’t have my first drink and my first piece of dessert until New Year’s night. So I ended up going basically for two months.”
“Yeah, the chocolate chip cookie part with the ice cream was probably the hardest for me. Well, the wine too, cuz being not playing and being a little stressed, I maybe wanted a glass here glass there, but it was good to give myself, give my body a break, and also to know that you like to challenge yourself,” explained James.
Nash further inquired if James did it just for the health benefits or for the adrenaline boost he got from challenging himself.
“A little bit of both. I want to focus on challenging yourself cuz that’s two things that I love. I mean, it’s two of my vices and uh but to be able to know that you could tap into that and also like I was starting to round myself back into shape, and doing things that I couldn’t do throughout the summer because of the back issue and things of that nature.”
“So wanted to give myself kind of the best opportunity to get back to doing the things that I need to do on the floor,” concluded James. Chocolate chip cookies and wine have been an essential part of LeBron James’ routine for the past several decades, yet he willingly gave them up.
And as a result, after his return to action, James has averaged 22.0 points, 7.1 assists, and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 50.2% from the floor. Still playing at an elite level, even if he is no longer eligible for any postseason awards.
The last time someone took away James’ cookies (Pat Riley on the Heat), he got very upset. James appeared on the Pat McAfee Show last year and confirmed this story.
“That cookies story is true.. Everybody knows I love chocolate chip cookies. One flight I got on, and there were no more cookies, and we all know where it came from.”
“It wasn’t like [Pat Riley] was on the plane and I was about to get my cookies, and Riles snatched them out of my hand. You know how stories can build to Sasquatch at some point.”
“Then one flight I got on, and I looked at them, and they looked at me, and I’m like, ‘That look didn’t look familiar,’ and I was like, and it was like, ‘No, we’re not allowed to. No more cookies on these flights.”
“I looked at D-Wade, D-Wade looked at me. Without even saying, he was like, f–king Riles had done it again,” said James in his appearance on the Pat McAfee show last March.
His former teammate, Dwyane Wade, even wondered if the micro-managing may have pushed James out of the Heat.
“You’re talking about a team who is four Finals in a row. You don’t need to micromanage us. I felt that ‘Riles’ went a little too far with his micromanaging at points like that. He’s a grown man; you don’t take the cookies away from him,” Wade said on the “Underground Lounge” podcast.
But in essence, the point is that James took the tough decision to accelerate his return to action. At age 41, your body no longer works at the same level as it used to. You need a lot more energy and sugar in your system to function at a high level.
But changing routines that have been ingrained in your system for decades must even be more challenging. Do you think sacrificing on wine and cookies will help elongate the rest of James’ career? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
