INDEPENDENCE, OHIO– LeBron James responded at Friday shootaround to the latest billboard to go up in Northeast Ohio attempting to influence his impending free agency decision.
The billboard went up in the Akron area a few days ago, showing red Nike sneakers and reminding him there is “no place like home.”
James said he hadn’t seen the billboard that’s up on I-77.
“No, I haven’t seen it, but, like I said before, it’s very flattering,” he said. “It’s just, I don’t know, it’s very humbling. I know my hometown, so, I already know there’s no place like Akron, that’s for sure. Everything I’ve done with that city, obviously, but being a part of that city my whole life. It’s just very flattering.”
James once again said that he isn’t too concerned with his free agency decision right this minute, saying, “my only focus is how we continue to improve as a ball club.” He has a $35.6 million player’s option on his contract for next year, but in his career he has never picked up a player’s option on the final year of a contract.
When asked how he can ignore all the hype, James said it isn’t something he ignores, so much as he just focuses on what he deems important. It’s a strategy he picked up in high school.
“I’ve always been able to keep the main thing the main thing,” James said. “I see pretty much everything. I have not seen that billboard just yet, but I will. I see and I hear pretty much everything, but I know what’s important. I know what keeps me focused. I know what the job is at hand and that’s just how I’ve always been. I’ve been like that my whole life.
“I heard talks of me being able to go straight to the NBA and being the number one pick after my junior year in high school. I heard that, but it didn’t affect me. There was talks of me leaving St. Vincent-St. Mary and going to Oak Hill. That could’ve been a billboard back then. But it was like, ‘No, I’m not doing that. I understand what’s important now. What’s important now is finishing the school year up and see what happens after the season.’ I’ve always been that way. When I was a kid, I’ve always just tackled the main thing at the present time and worried about the future when it’s upon me.”
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