After LeBron James’ first practice with the Lakers on Monday, he joked with the media by saying, “I know y’all missed me.”
I’m not sure if LeBron also missed the media, but he certainly wanted to be out there playing.
He wasn’t just out for the first 14 games of the season, he was unavailable for training camp and preseason action. For the first time in his career, basketball began without him as he remained sidelined with sciatica.
He eventually made his return against the Jazz on Tuesday, helping
the Lakers win in blowout fashion. After the victory, he talked about how much he missed the game.
“It was just fun to be out there with the guys, man,” LeBron said. “Like I said, it’s been rough like mentally for me. Like this is the first time I’ve started a basketball season and not played since I’ve started playing basketball at like nine years old. I’ve never missed the beginning of a basketball season. So, just going through that physically, emotionally, spiritually and everything just tested me.
“Just keeping my head down with the work and then keeping my head up with faith and it’s gotten me to this point today. It’s just great. A lot of joy, a lot of probably see me smiling and talking a lot on the court today, just being out with those guys, just so fun.”
Against the Jazz, he didn’t just have fun, he played well. He only took seven shots but he had 12 assists and fit in perfectly with this team.
As ridiculous as it sounds, some talking heads speculated that the Lakers would somehow be worse off getting LeBron back. Even writing this out makes me feel dumb, but it was being said and LeBron was aware of the nonsensical chatter.
“I can fit in with anybody,” LeBron said. “I don’t even understand why that was even a question. What’s wrong with these people out here? I could fit in right away with anybody. Just watching the guys the first 14 games that I missed and seeing, I was just putting myself in position while I was watching the games and how I can help the team and how I could be successful to help those guys.”
Of all the things to worry about with the 2025-26 Lakers, LeBron fitting in or making the team better shouldn’t even be on the list. In fact, if you write it down, it’s you I have questions about.
Regardless, he has returned and after all these years, the clearest example we have that LeBron loves this game so much is that he still missed it deeply during his time away.
Here’s hoping he remains healthy and stays relatively available for the rest of the year.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
