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November 19, 2025 11 mins

LeBron James made NBA history by becoming the first player to compete in 23 seasons—and he showed no signs of slowing down. In his season debut against the Utah Jazz, LeBron posted 11 points and 12 assists, helping the Lakers secure a 140-126 win. Analysts and fans alike praised his fit with rising stars like Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic, while emphasizing his poise, energy, and leadership. As the Lakers continue to climb the standings, questions arise about possible trade moves and who could help push the team deeper into the postseason. Meanwhile, with the 2028 Olympics on the horizon, speculation builds over who can step into LeBron’s role as the emotional anchor of Team USA.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I think it's a true testament to the time
and the money and the effort that he puts into
his body. Like if y'all not doing this, like he's
literally laying out the blueprint of how you can play
twenty three seasons.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Granted, I know genetics is a big.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Thing, right, but the man does pilates. And as a
pilates girl, if y'all not doing pilates, do pilates?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Are you trying to compare yourself to Lebron right now?
Is that what you? No?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
No, no, no, all right, let's get into Lebron James's historic return.
Last night, he became the first player to play in
twenty three seasons, putting up eleven points twelve assists in
his season debut against the Utah Jazz. Now, the Lakers
went on to win this match up one for twenty six.

(00:45):
That was also a season high for the Lakers. Rodney,
what were your thoughts on not only the Lakers win,
but Lebron returning for twenty three seasons.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
That's great, So as a Laker fan and supporter, man,
it was really really good to see Lebron Jays back
out there on the court and a lot of people
have questions about what his fit would be because Austin
Reeves and Luca Donsons have been playing absolutely out of
their mind. And you know, Lebron can be quite bald dominant,
but so too can Luca and Austin Reeves, obviously Luca
being far more ball dominant than either of them. But

(01:16):
Lebron fit in so perfectly, and he was moving the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
He had so much energy. He set up.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
DeAndre Eighten for at least four or five easy layups
buzzer beating threes.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
It was good to see Lebron look like it was
year three.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
He's still that had that youthful exuberance, and you can
tell that everybody was really excited to have him out
there on the court. Now, the Lakers in general like
they've been playing really good basketball. Believe they're eleven and
four now, maybe twelve and four after last night's victory.
So yeah, so this team is this team is clicking.
And regardless of how old he is, when you insert
Lebron James into a well oiled machine, the machine gets better.

(01:54):
I don't care how old he is, I don't care
who else is on the team. If the team is
playing well, when you inject the player with that much,
that much skill and that much just brilliance, things get better.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
So I'm looking forward to the Lakers take it off.
Were lit out here in La. I'm trying to like
self containing all the can tall, but I'm really excited.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Go ahead, Yeah, because JJ Reddick said after the game
that like the word that they've been using to describe
the team as poise, And I'm like, how can you
not have poise when you're playing alongside Lebron James, Like,
I just feel like it's impossible to do. I don't
know because of all the things that you just said,
Like I just feel like you would step out on
the floor and just really settle in really quickly. And

(02:34):
for Lebron, it was just having fun. Like he's just like, look,
I'm having fun out here. He looks great. It's crazy,
and I think it's a true testament to the time
and the money and the effort that he puts into
his body. Like if y'all not doing this, like he's
literally laying out the blueprint of how you can play
twenty three seasons.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Granted, I know genetics is a big thing, right, but
the man does pilates and as a pilates girl. If
y'all not doing pilates, do pilates?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Are you trying to compare yourself to Lebron right now?
Is that what you do? You centering yourself in Lebron's
athletic abilities.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
I'm saying that I know how good pilates is for recovery, okay,
and you should do it. And the way you say
your shoulders and ankles and whatever needs, well, you should
be on a reformer.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
I need I need shoulder surgery, Like there's just no
getting around that. But we ain't doing that right now
because I still got more tennis to play. But back
Lebron his presence, even had Bronni played well last night,
like Bronni got out on the court and hit a
deep three, actually shot the ball.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
We know he can be a little timid in shooting.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
And I just think, like when you have the like
one of the greatest players of all time, he's probably
he's probably two or three on my list whatever, depending
on how I rank him on the given day. Like,
when you have one of the greatest players of all
time on the court, like it boosts your confidence. You know,
DeAndre Ayton, who has been playing well as the season
has has progressed, kind of looked like a different guy
last night playing alongside Lebron James. Marcus Smart, who's been

(03:59):
for nomenal for the Lakers this season, was doing Marcus
Smart type things.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Uh, gave Vincent? Gave Vincent played well last night. It's
just everybody and.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
I love listen.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I tell you, I was there when the Memphis Grizzlies
drafted Jake Arabia.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
You were right, You're right.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
It's like, oh my god, who is that?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Y'all?

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Let Anthony Edward was hype, y'all up, and Jake le
balling out there.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Jake is nice.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
I ain't on front, He's he has a really well
run the game. These are the well I call them
the snow time Lakers because there's a lot of whiteness
out there on the court.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
But they balling. So I ain't even mad. I'm not
even mad.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
But when I saw that the big offseason signing was
another white guy you know has a brother, I was
a little timid and a little apprehension about what that
could mean for the success of this team this year.
But Jakeliarrabia is a high energy guy. He's a really
really good athlete, shoots the ball really well, plays defense.
He's fitting to this team really seamlessly. I'm looking to
see what kind of move the Lakers make, though, because
obviously they always are looking to improve their and I

(05:00):
think they have some parts they can get rid of,
namely Jared Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
I think they can get better, but.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
He's still on the team.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Bro exactly, And that's my point.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
So I think you can package Jared Vanderbilt Dalton Connect
and maybe get and get a formidable like bench for
to come off, you know, to kind of help just
show up that front court a little bit.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Maybe somebody that's lesson.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
That's crazy about Dalton Connect. It's unfortunately I would love
to see this supposed to be one of those ones.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
But if if the Lakers are able to and I
know this is a pie in the sky because I
think it's the numbers don't work out mathematically, But if
the Lakers are able to land like a Jeremy Grant
from the Portland Trailblazers and add him to this roster,
I think that would be a phenomenal, phenomenal pickup for them.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Somebody who y'all can't get everything, No, can't get everything.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
But but you look at what the what the the
Denver Nuggets have, right, you look at what the Oklahoma
City thunder have, even with the Houston Rockets had man,
these teams are loaded out here. And yeah, you got Lebron,
but he is in year twenty three, you got Luka Doncis.
But but for real, for real, the only All Star
on this team this year might be Luka Doncics, depending
on how Lebron James comes into play. So I think

(06:13):
those other teams have two and three All Stars. So
you ask somebody like Jeremy Grant, who's just a really
good core player, still an athletic guy, can shoot the
ball really well at this stage of his career. I
think that's a phenomenal piece.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I'm the Laker.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I'm trying to get Jeremy Grant for sure to show
up that front court. But that's just me, Roddy the
GM because you know, I just I know a little
thinking too about who. I'm so excited to have Lebron
back on the court. I just I don't know if
you could tell I'm rimming with excitement.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
I did also see that Lebron has no interest in
playing in the Olympics.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Steph Kurk. I don't think that Steph Curry is going
to play either.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
I mean we're talking about well, maybe we're talking about
twenty twenty eight. That's a long time from now, and
it's going to be really interesting to see an Olympics
team without Lebron James on the floor.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, it'll be interesting because again, Lebron is a extremely
calming entity and when he's on your team, you just
feel like you can win and pull out certain games.
And so I wonder who America will have on the
team in twenty twenty eight. That kind of gives that
level of mental stability and comfort and ease that Lebron brings,
because even a guy like Anthony Edwards, who's so great

(07:18):
and dynamic, he does feel a bit chaos chaotic at times.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Still, No, you know, it doesn't. It doesn't feel like
if he's on the court, it's a sure thing.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
And I don't know if we have anybody else out
there that feels quite like that yet, at least maybe
Jason Tatum and then how he comes back.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
But we're gonna be in trouble in twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
We're gonna be in no we have time, and it
could be some younger guys that we don't even that
probably aren't even in the league that can that can
come in.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
It's gonna look completely different.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
That's gonna be a problem if you have young The
international teams have all been playing together for a decade
plus many of them, right, so they have familiarity. So
we can't just put pieces together and think we're gonna
be able to compete against teams that have so much
familiarity and camaraderie.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
So I don't know that.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
And even like an Aj Devenster who's been playing phenomenally
by the way, for BYU also shout out to Kayle Wilson.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
I told you all that boy in Carolina he's special. Yeah,
and Darren Peterson Kansas.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
We can go on wrong with freshman classes insane, but
even putting together just a hodgepodge of young guys wouldn't
vde well, especially when you have teams like France who
have had you know, Wemby, Richa, Sha Sar. They have
a ton of high draft picks over the last three
or four years that came into the league, and so
those young guys over from France have been playing together

(08:36):
for a long time. That's gonna be tough to compete
with whatever team Jokicic is, whatever team is around Yokic
is gonna be tough just because he's out there and
our big men are also small and frail. It's like
chet Holmgren. I like Chet Holmgren, but he's so frail body.
I don't know how he's gonna fare an international, international competition.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
But no, that is Yeah, it's gonna be quite interesting
to see because I'm even trying to think of the
young guys from the last Olympics. It wasn't that many,
you know, it was a lot of the old heads,
And what are they What are the old heads gonna
look like in two or three years?

Speaker 4 (09:08):
That's I mean, I think Kevin Durant can Kevin Durant
can play basketball until until the end of the time.
And I think even in for realveral and two and
a half years, Steph Curry can still play if he's
gonna want to play. He's only been in one Olympics ever,
so he might get a little thirsty for another opportunity
to win another gold medal for solidify his legacy.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
But there there's some young guys that are good. We
have good guards and some good wings.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
But I just I think we play a lot of
AAU basketball and on the international stage that doesn't necessarily
bode well when these other teams have in ball movement
and they play team defense and it's not isolation basketball.
So I don't know, it's gonna be interesting. Who's Cooper
flag gonna be that? That's somebody that they put a
lot of.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
And right, and he is he going to be on
the team.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, he's white. It's Captain America.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Anyways, we want to hear from you all down below.
Let us know your thoughts on not only the Olympics
in twenty twenty eight because that's crazy, but more importantly,
Lebron James returned last night late last night. Oh my god,
Big Bron, Ya gotta got ya, gotta stop.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
Real quick sports is not designed to watch on the
East Coast.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I want to go on right because it's really not.
We've been game starts at seven o'clock out here.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
It's perfect like the Lakers game come on, came on
at seven thirty last night Primetime.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I was eating dinner. I was watching the game. Perfecttion.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
You all over there, y'all be tired of sall ten
thirty eleven o'clock that night, trying to stay and watch
the basketball late.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
We gotta go to work in a more.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
You ain't got no job, Tommy anyway, make sure I
tap into our newsletter as well.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
We keep you up to date on all things in
the sports world.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
You feel me might have some fashion tips for y'all
as well, because this sweat is some Maria God Baby,
you eat.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Ten is t What shall be doing? Tell me
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