LeBron James was one of the first players up to meet and speak with members of the media on Monday’s 2015 Media Day for the Cleveland Cavaliers. See what he had to say about this upcoming season, his past Finals losses, his mindset for this season, and much more:
“It’s still a process for us. What happened last year is last year. One thing we can build off of last year is the chemistry that we had. We can’t build off the success as far as wins and losses. No matter what our accomplishments were last year, its a whole new year. we gotta have the same focus, we gotta have the same mindset, the same one goal.”
“The main thing is still to win a championship. If you prepare for it and visualize it every day on and off the court, it’ll put your mind in the right frame to where you’ve done it for so long, it’ll give you the best possible chance to succeed.”
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“I could definitely use a couple more months off,” said LeBron jokingly.
“Every single day we have championship habits. We work towards hoisting that trophy up. We represent this organization at the highest level and we represent ourselves at the highest level.”
I feel like I’ve improved some aspects of my game in the month of September. I got a little bit crazy with my workout regimen in September. I was doing 3-a-days, 5 days per week so I believe I improved. Did I get enough rest, I don’t think so, but I think I improved.”
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Where are you with the ongoing contract negotiations with Tristan Thompson:
“Where I’m at is that as the leader of this team, I understand how important Tristan is to this team and I think we all saw what he was able to do in the postseason. And not only in the postseason, but all year round to help us be successful. I’m very optimistic that something will get done from both sides long term. I love Tristan, I think we all love Tristan and what he’s capable of bringing to the team.”
“I’ve been to the Finals six times, I’ve lost four of them, and it gets worse and worse every single time. I will take all the pain that it takes for competing for a championship. I’ll take all the bumps and bruises that I would get when I’m doing playing because I know I left it all on the floor.”
“One thing that we did in my second year in Miami that didn’t need to be talked about, was that we were angry. We were very very very angry. Everybody that we went up against knew it. The first team we played after the lockout was Dallas, and they saw how angry we were. I don’t remember how much we won by but it was by a lot and on their home floor.”
“I do also know that father time is undefeated. I don’t think about me being the best basketball player in the world. It’s been that way for a while now,” said LeBron chuckling.
In regards to his minutes:
“I think that’s a coach Blatt and myself conversation and we haven’t quite gotten there yet. I’m really hard headed. I am because i love to play so much. but i think with what we have, I don’t need to be hard headed. I think we have enough pieces. I think Kevin Love will allow me to sit a lot this year because of his abilities, what he’s able to do. Kyrie too. i won’t have to worry about playing big minutes this year.”