James is sidelined to open training camp with what Coach JJ Redick calls “a little bit of nerve irritation in the glute,” and the team will ramp him up slower this fall.
Lakers star LeBron James takes questions from the media during the team’s annual preseason media day on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in El Segundo. the NBA’s all-time minutes leader who is entering an unprecedented 23rd season in the league So when it comes to getting him prepared for the 2025-26 season, James and the Lakers plan to have a slow ramp-up period, which included the 40-year-old James not participating in the team’s first training camp practice on Tuesday.
“In talking with performance and in talking with Mike and LeBron, probably did too much last year in camp,” Redick said on Tuesday. “Which was great for me as a first-year head coach to get buy-in from him. But it’ll be a slower process with him leading into the first game.” Redick added: “He’s obviously got 22 years so far of wear and tear on the body and he’s dealing with a little bit of nerve irritation in the glute. So, we’re just playing the long game with LeBron.” James turns 41 in December and has played the most combined regular-season and playoffs career minutes in league history with 71,103 combined. He was off to the side of the Lakers’ practice courts in street clothes alongside his son and teammate Bronny James, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and assistant coach Scott Brooks during the portion of practice that was open to viewing for media members. Redick said it would be “nice” if James played during the preseason, which starts for the Lakers with Friday’s exhibition game against the Phoenix Suns at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, but that the goal is having James available for the regular-season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 at Crypto.com Arena. “You’ll hear me use this a lot: it is unchartered territory,” Redick said. “I don’t think there’s a proven way to handle someone who has this much mileage, this many minutes, been asked to do so many things on both ends of the court. “We asked a lot of him last year, we asked a lot of him to start the year in camp, so it’s just working as a partnership and trying to figure it out.” But he suffered a Grade 2 medial collateral ligament sprain in his left knee during the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ season-ending Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 30 in the first round of last year’s playoffs. James posted on social media that he went through his first on-court workout after the injury in late June. James was also sidelined for nearly a week in December, missing two games, and away from the team to rehab his lingering left foot ailment. He told ESPN on Monday that he’s physically not where he wants to be and is still “ramping things back up.” “That’s always the challenge: how can I get my body to as close to 100%,” he added. “Obviously, coming off the injury, the MCL sprain of last year. Obviously, the foot has kind of given me problems from time to time throughout the course of the last few seasons. That’s always the challenge, seeing can I get my body as close to 100% where I can go out there and perform at a high level.” Redick provided assurance on Tuesday that James was “on board” with the team’s approach to his ramp-up for next season. Even with James not physically participating in Tuesday’s practice, his coach and teammates said his presence was felt with his communication. “It’s Bron – he’s always gonna observe kind of how he does it in communication,” guard Austin Reaves said. “That’s the approach that he’s going to take right now, is just being one of our vocal leaders. That’s what he’s done his whole career. That’s what he’s done his last five years that I’ve been with him. So I don’t expect anything else.” And the Lakers expressed optimism that their approach with James won’t negatively impact their ability to build chemistry, especially among the team’s stars of James, Reaves and Luka Doncic. “Just communication; have good dialogue back and forth what everybody likes, what we think we can do to be successful,” Reaves said. “I mean, with being one of the highest IQ guys to ever play the game, it’s not that hard to piece it in even if he’s not out there right now. “He sees the game just as good as anybody that’s ever played the game. Just having conversation, dialogue back and forth what we feel like we can do to help our team be successful is gonna be key.”Redick said Vincent “should” be good to play in live action by the end of the week and is expected to play on Friday. The team is taking a similar approach as last season, when Vincent was working his way back from left knee ailments. Smart, who was a modified participant on Tuesday, has been dealing with Achilles tendinopathy but is expected “to be fine” by the end of the week, according to Redick., said on Monday that he hasn’t been fully cleared yet, and he’s still dealing with swelling in his knee. “He’s had a ramp up from running, cutting, jumping and running, cutting, jumping with coaches, three-on-three vs. coaches, three-on-three vs. players, live play to this week,” Redick said. “We’ve just got to manage him coming from knee surgery and to be quite frank with you, he was not our player when he had the surgery. So we did not have control over what he did for the three months after the surgery so it’s really about playing the long game with him. “We look at this year as a developmental year and there’s no reason for us to push his body and create a long-term problem. His knee is in a really good spot, we just want to be really careful.”Dutch Bros is opening its first Los Angeles shop and another in Santa ClaritaIs it better to rent or own in California? That depends.Los Angeles landmarks are lit up to celebrate 4th anniversary of LA For All campaignDodgers’ bullpen squanders Shohei Ohtani’s dominant outingRose Parade’s 2026 Rose Court announced by Tournament of Roses
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