MIAMI — LeBron James has long credited a good night’s sleep for why he’s been able to recover from the wear and tear of his 23-year NBA career.
Before the game in which he tied the record for the most regular-season games played in an NBA career, James and his teammates definitely didn’t get one.
“He’s a psycho,” Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
The Lakers arrived at their hotel in Miami at 5 a.m. Thursday before playing the Heat later that night. But despite being listed as questionable on the injury report after his 30-point game Wednesday in Houston, the 41-year-old James started against the Miami Heat and tied Robert Parish’s record of 1,611 regular-season games played.
“He’s got to be insane. Can’t be normal things going on in his brain to do it so well at such a high level,” teammate Austin Reaves said of James. “There’s nothing left to prove, but he finds something to continue to motivate him. It’s a beautiful thing. And it’s a beautiful thing to have him as one of the leaders of this team, because (if) there’s anybody in the world that could take games off, mentally not be there in a film session, practice, whatever it might be, it could be him. And that’s not how he’s wired.”
The numbers are still wild, too.
In the 134-126 win against Miami, James had the 124th triple-double of his career, finishing with 19 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists as the Lakers won their eighth straight game.
“It goes back to the competitive stamina that he has and his ability to put so much focus and intent into his day,” Redick said of James’ longevity. “That’s how you last. That’s how you improve. That’s how you stay healthy and are available to play in that amount of games.
“I think his thing is, whatever the quote is, ‘Make sure you make the main thing the main thing.’ And he’s made basketball the main thing for a long time.”
James said he’s been able to continue to move forward without focusing on his individual accolades, most of which aren’t the kinds of honors that have motivated him over his 23-year career.
“It’s not like I’m writing things down or looking at the record books and saying, ‘I’m going to get that, I’m going to get that, I’m going to get that.’ It just kind of happened,” James said after Thursday’s game. “It was not on the list of things that I wanted to accomplish. Games played, all-time leader in points … I don’t know, some of the other stuff that has happened as well, 10-point streak, those things was not in my mind.
“Like, I (wanted) to be the best player in this league at some point. I wanted to be the greatest, one of the greatest, if not the greatest ever to play this game. I wanted to be an NBA champion. I wanted to possibly win Rookie of the Year, make All-Star appearances, win a gold medal, win some MVPs … those were some of my goals. But some of the stuff that has been happening over the course of the last few years has been super-duper cool.”
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James has long been regarded as one of the league’s most physically prepared players. His two-decade-plus partnership with trainer Mike Mancias has yielded a stretch of greatness at the top of the league that’s never been matched.
“It’s not something I set out to do,” James said earlier this week about the games record. “The one thing that I’ve always had in my mind is that you can’t be a leader and you can’t practice what you preach if you’re not available to your teammates. And I’ve always kind of just prided myself on trying to be as available as possible in my career to my teammates, going out on the floor every night and keeping my body intact.
“And the only way I can do that is how I treat my body, how I prepare my mind to be available for 23 years as much as I possibly can. So that’s what it is for me.”
James is scheduled to set the record for most games played Saturday when the Lakers travel to Orlando to face the Magic.
