The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the fortunate teams who aren’t scheduled to play on Super Bowl Sunday, they also won’t need to travel anywhere by virtue of being in the midst of a homestand.
As such, LeBron James and Anthony Davis are among those from the team who are looking forward to being able to enjoy Super Bowl LV between Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs led by Patrick Mahomes.
James has long been a football fan and has relationships with players on both teams set to square off. Of course, many comparisons have been made between himself and Brady as both continue to play at an unbelievable level despite being so deep into their careers.
But when it comes to his rooting interests for the game itself, James refused to choose sides. “I’m just going to give you the straight-up political answer: I just want to see a great game,” LeBron said following the Lakers’ 135-129 double overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons.
As for his plans on game day, James doesn’t have much in store. “I’ll still get treatment as I do on any day between a game, knowing we have a game on Monday. But it won’t cut into my Super Bowl,” he said.
“I plan on getting up early, get some treatment and then I’ll probably go back to sleep. Get a couple hours of rest before the Super Bowl so I’m locked in on not only the game but also the commercials. Got to be locked into the commercials. Absolutely. I don’t want to miss anything. As a family we always rank our top five best Super Bowl commercials, so I’m looking forward to that.”
That treatment will undoubtedly be needed after James had to play a season-high 45 minutes in the Lakers’ win over the Pistons.
As for the commercials, James will see a familiar face at some point. “Why am I just hearing about this?” James asked Davis when he was questioned about the level of excitement over having a Super Bowl commercial.
“If you’ve got a commercial on Super Bowl Sunday, you’re doing something right. I know how much those commercials cost,” said James, who couldn’t specifically recall his ad on the marquee day but remembered the financial aspect associated with it.
“I remember how much it cost to get. And it depends if it’s first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, halftime and fourth quarter. And if you get a 30 (second commercial) compared to a 60 or 90.
“That number goes up from there. I’m going to clock his and see how much time he got.”
Details of Davis’ commercial remain under wraps, but he’s certainly looking forward to it airing. “It’s something that’s super cool to me. Being a huge football fan, like ‘Bron said, you always watch the commercials. That’s one of the reasons why you watch the Super Bowl,” he said.
“For me to be a part of that legacy with all the great commercials — it was great to me, I’m not sure how the world is going to take it — but to be a part of that is something that doesn’t come by too often. I’m excited to be a part of that.”
LeBron draws comparisons to Brady ahead of Super Bowl
The parallels between James and Brady are evident as both have dominated their respective sports both with individual and team success while arguably going down as the greatest ever once their careers are finished.
They’re outstanding play late in their careers has only furthered those comparisons and LeBron spoke on what it means to him to watch Brady still operate.
“It doesn’t do anything for me as far as what I do in my profession,” James said. “But what it does it let me know and both of us know that we can still play this game at a high level.
“No matter how many miles, how many games, how many doubters, the statistics in our respective professions at our age. We can still dominate our sport and also we can blend with groups we may not have been around for a long period of time.”
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