LeBron James and Anthony Edwards spent last summer as teammates in the Paris Olympics. Less than a year later, they clashed in the NBA postseason, as James's Los Angeles Lakers took on Edwards's Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. And in this instance the young buck proved successful, as Edwards helped eliminate James and the Lakers in five games.
After the series-ending loss at Crypto.com Arena, James gave Edwards a simple message during the typical postgame pleasantries: "It's the next step now."
On Thursday, appearing on the Mind The Game podcast with Steve Nash, James discussed what that message means to him and why he wanted to communicate it to Edwards— beyond the basic aspect of encouragement, anyway.
"For me to just tell him to take the next step, it doesn't always mean, OK, well, Western Conference finals, now you gotta be in the Finals," James said to Nash. "It's like, take the next step. You as a person. You as a player. Continue to get better and better and better. Your time's going to come. I can't decide when that's going to be. Sometimes we have no control over when that next step (happens), as far as going to the Finals and winning. We (don't always) have the opportunity to do that. But we do have control over making the next step in our own individual journey.
"That's what it was about. I love seeing it. I loved seeing Jayson Tatum take that next step. Now I see Ant taking that next step. It's a proud feeling for me as a player whose been in the league for so long."
The full interview is below, with James's above comments beginning at 24:30.
James certainly seems appreciative of the opportunity he has to usher along the next generation. Of course, it feels like he's been doing that for several generations now, so ridiculous is his longevity.
Edwards is trying to apply James's advice in the Wolves' second-round series against the Golden State Warriors, with Game 2 slated for Thursday night.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as LeBron James Explains Meaning Behind Message He Gave Anthony Edwards After Playoff Loss.