Originally appeared on E! Online
LeBron James might have been down, but he’s not out.
After being forced to miss two games with the Los Angeles Lakers in an eight-day span, the NBA forward re-emerged Dec. 15 to help his team score a 116-110 win against the Memphis Grizzlies — though he was reluctant to step away to treat a foot injury.
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“If it was up to just me, I probably would've played,” James told reporters of his brief hiatus following the Lakers’ victory, per ESPN. “It would've been hard to keep me away from it. I have a team and I got to listen to them as well. They look out for my best interest.”
The time away seemed to pay off, as he contributed 18 points to the team’s final total against the Grizzlies.
“I had an opportunity to take more days and get my mind, body and everything where I wanted it to be for tonight,” James continued. “And it worked out.”
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But the basketball veteran — who turns 40 on Dec. 30 — still kept busy during his downtime, noting that he did “a lot of rehabbing, a lot of training still to make sure that I was ready to go tonight. Didn't want to get too much out of shape.”
Looking ahead, Lakers coach JJ Redick said he would work to give the four-time NBA champion more breaks to avoid having him miss full games.
“Not necessarily less minutes,” Redick told reporters in a post-game press conference, per EPSN, “but shorter runs so that he's not getting gassed and then quicker segments on the bench and then he's back in.”
While James previously expressed his desire to hit the court for all 82 games of the regular season, his coach was more pragmatic about the goal.
“I don't know that's in the best interest of him and us if he does that,” Redick cautioned as he spoke to reporters Dec. 2, according to ESPN, “but if he's feeling well and feeling good, then he should play. But we obviously want to ... manage that as best we can."