After being eliminated in the first round by the Denver Nuggets, there is no rest for Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James as he is a part of Team USA for the Paris Olympics later this summer.
This presents a challenge for the 39-year-old as he is spoken out about getting the necessary recovery during the offseason to make sure his body is ready for training camp. However, this recovery period will be shortened as training camp for Team USA will take place in early July.
A bonus to an early exit is that James can begin his resting right now, in comparison to a deep playoff run that could enhance the possibility of wearing down to a packed summer. In the latest episode of his Mind the Game podcast with JJ Redick, the four-time champion discussed his planned preparation for the Olympics:
“Obviously it’s going to be a little different. For me, probably over the last four to five years, I’ve kind of after the season try to give my body at least two months of like, no basketball. I’m still doing the yogas and the pilates and walking around, still being active and stretching and all that type of shit. But as far as (basketball), I’ve tried to give my body like two months of just, I don’t want to be on the basketball court at all, actually like training. But it’s challenging now because it’s May 1 and in two months, training camp actually starts in Vegas and I don’t want to go into training camp doing nothing on the court for two months. So I’m going to kind of switch it up a little bit, I’m not going to be going crazy with my training, whatever the case may be. I’ll probably take the month of May off, give my body an opportunity to rest and then probably around the first or second week of June, I’ll start to get back into the game a little bit, start getting some routine shots up, getting a feel for the ball. Now I got the FIBA ball I got to work with too, so that’s a little different. But just getting my body re-acclimated to just some of the movements that you just never do in a regular day-to-day basis as far as when you’re doing workouts. So, yeah, I’ll switch it up a little bit.”
James is all about structure and routines when making sure is body is 100% ready, whether it be for the NBA or FIBA play. So this is not a surprise as to how in-depth his preparation is for the Olympics, but it is good to see that he already has a rough idea of how his summer is going to be.
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