National Basketball Association

LeBron in radio interview: I can be better next year

Published Jul. 13, 2015 11:47 a.m. ET

foxsports

by Josh Poloha

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James made a rare radio appearance on Sunday, as he had an interview with Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM. Following a busy week that including signing a new contract and hosting a premiere of his first motion picture, “Trainweck,” in Akron, James made time for an interview with the NBA Opening Tip show, hosted by Howard Beck and Ethan Skolnick.1

James touched on a variety of issues, from the NBA Finals, to his vacation in the Bahamas, to the DeAndre Jordan free agency debacle.

While already considered the best player in the world, the 30-year-old James said that he can still get better.

“I feel like I can be a better player next year…I just feel like I have a lot of room to improve, either from a basketball side of things or from a leadership or mental side of things that can help me a better player,” James said. “So I’m looking forward to it.”

Much of his motivation most likely stems from how the 2014-15 season ended. James said that he still has “nightmares” when he thinks about the way the Cavaliers lost to the Golden State Warriors in the Finals, and also said that he still has flashbacks of game situations in his head.

Last week, point guard Kyrie Irving said that the wine and gold would have definitely beaten the Warriors in the Finals if the Cavs were at 100 percent. In the radio interview, James said that that “still doesn’t guarantee you a championship if all guys are healthy…but obviously it would’ve gave us a better chance. That’s obvious…You still gotta go out on the floor and play the game, but it definitely [would have given] us a much better shot than we had because we were down two All-Stars.”

James said that he would “get back in the lab” to start working on his game in late August after a trip to China (for Nike), and that he would ramp up his workouts in September. He also said that he would use his long flights to and from China to watch film and decide which areas of his game he would like to improve.

The 11-time All-Star said that he wants to not only improve his own game, but also those of his teammates. He said that he will use film study to figure out “exactly what I need to do to help Shump (Iman Shumpert), to help Kev (Kevin Love), to help Kyrie, help Mo Williams, and also to help Tristan Thompson.”

James was optimistic that Thompson and the Cavaliers will work out a deal to lock up the 24-year-old for the long term.

“Hopefully we get (Thompson’s contract) done and hopefully we continue to get better from there and continue to bring other guys in too,” James said.

During the playoffs, James said multiple times that he had a secret motivation, but he never revealed what that motivation was. He remained coy on the radio as to the nature of that motivation, but is already thinking about his next crack at the playoffs.

“I’m still waiting to win,” he said. “The motivation has not stopped. Once the postseason starts, if we’re fortunate to get to the postseason — I think we can, we have a great team — that motivation will kick back in.”

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