Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is very much against having his minutes reduced, but he's not planning to make an issue over it.
The 33-year-old forward joined the Western Conference side in free agency over the summer, signing a four-year deal to become the franchise's new face. However, head coach Luke Walton has said that his star's minutes will be managed ahead of the Lakers' opener against the Portland Trailblazers on Thursday night.
“We’re going to try to keep his minutes at a reasonable number,” Walton said. “That’ll probably change with how we’re playing as a team, or where we’re at in the season. But we’d like to keep him at a reasonable number."
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James, though, insists he's always fresh and has been preaching the fact to his coaches throughout his career but they just won't listen.
"I'm always fresh," he claimed, speaking via ESPN on Thursday morning. "All my coaches want to figure out a way of how to lessen my minutes. I keep telling them I'm strong enough to play most minutes, but they won't listen to me, so, it's OK. I like it."
Walton has admitted that LeBron's progress from preseason to now is quite unnatural.
"I told him that his legs seem to be getting younger as training camp goes on," the coach said. "It normally works the other way. But he's jumping higher, he's moving quicker the more we get out there and play. So it's like I said: There's one game tonight. We're obviously excited to be playing regular-season games now, but he looks very good."
While the player isn't heavily topped to compete for a ring this season, possibly for the first time in in the last 10 or so years, another championship remains his ultimate goal.
"It's just my goal. It's always been my goal ... maybe the last 10 or 11 years where I felt like it's championships," he said. "I want to win championships, and putting my mind into that and thinking about it. I think when you have championship habits, you have championship thoughts, and things come into fruition."
"LeBron will play a lot of minutes, yes," Walton he says. "It will be a consistent theme for us this year."