LOS ANGELES — LeBron James scored 42 points in a successful return to the Drew League as he teamed with DeMar DeRozan for a 104-102 victory in the Los Angeles Majors on Saturday.
Longtime Drew League commissioner Dino Smiley told ESPN he expected Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving to play in the game before the James-DeRozan game, but that didn’t happen.
“We’ve got a couple more games today and then six tomorrow, so we’ll see,” Smiley said late Saturday afternoon.
Smiley said Irving’s game Saturday “sounded like a sure bet, but I don’t know what happened.”
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While Saturday’s Drew League tournament was being played near Compton, Calif., about 55 miles away in Thousand Oaks, a participant in Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy’s girls basketball skills camp posted a video of Irving working with the campers. on your Instagram account.
Handy coached Irving for five seasons when both were part of the Cleveland Cavaliers organization.
Saturday’s Drew League game marked the first public glimpse of the 37-year-old James playing basketball in more than three months. He missed seven of the Lakers’ final eight regular-season games in the spring with a sprained left ankle and missed 26 games in the entire 2021-22 season, which ended up being one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.
“I’m 100 percent healthy,” James told ESPN during the first half of the game.
He finished with 42 points on 18-for-36 shooting (2-for-13 from 3), 16 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists. DeRozan, a Drew League starter who invited James to play on his and fellow Southern California native Casper Ware’s team, scored 30 points on 9-for-23 shooting with 14 rebounds.
James and DeRozan’s team, dubbed the MMV Cheaters, trailed the Black Pearl Elite by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter before storming back.
DeRozan’s pass to James for a two-handed, rim-bending dunk with 1:22 left put MMV up by six and looked in control. But BPE followed with a 3-pointer and a layup set up by an inbounds steal, and James was suddenly in danger of losing his first Drew League game in more than a decade.
After a timeout, MMV inbounded the ball to James, who was fouled with 4.5 seconds left, sending him to the free throw line with his team leading 103-102.
He did the first one. And then things got interesting.
“I went up to LeBron at the end and said, ‘Hey, I need one [miss]Mike Nwabuzor of BPE, who plays professionally abroad, said afterwards. “And he actually smoked the free throw. So that was probably the best moment. But the whole game was fun. Great competition. It’s just great to share the court with him.”
James missed the second free throw, but BPE’s Ethan Alvano made a potential game-winning 3 at the buzzer that missed, and James raised his fist in victory.
“I thought we could really handle it,” said Alvano, who recently signed a two-year contract to play in South Korea. “We had some mistakes throughout. But man, it’s a lifelong dream to play against, with anything like LeBron James. Someone I grew up watching, someone I grew up idolizing. So it was an honor, it was a blessing to share the court with him.”
It was James’ first appearance in the Drew League — which was founded in 1973 and has seen a pilgrimage of NBA players who have climbed the high school of Charles Drew Junior High in the summer for decades — since the NBA lockout in 2011
“When it first happened, it was a surprise because Baron [Davis] brought him in to play and I think he was just coming to watch and then he got excited to see the crowd and the game and then he asked for a jersey,” Smiley said. “So that’s what happened.”
Davis was one of about a dozen former or current NBA players scheduled to watch Saturday, a group that also included Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors; Montrezl Harrell of the Charlotte Hornets; and Kendrick Nunn and Talen Horton-Tucker of the Lakers.
Irving’s absence erased much of the day’s intrigue surrounding James and his former teammate.
Irving recently picked up his $36.5 million player option for the 2022-23 season with the Brooklyn Nets, and James is in the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, though he will be eligible to sign an extension with LA starting next month .
Los Angeles has engaged Brooklyn in trade talks in recent weeks to try to acquire Irving in a deal that would send Russell Westbrook to the Nets, sources told ESPN. So far, these negotiations have not progressed to an agreement.
Instead, the focus was on the court, with James — four years into his Lakers tenure — becoming enamored with the L.A. basketball scene.
“For him to be here and come in the middle of the neighborhood where every day there are regular people who look up to him, he’s a superstar, so for him to come here and honor those people with his presence, I think it’s super drug,” Alvano said. “I’m glad he did and it’s great for the community.”
Added Smiley: “It was just an epic, epic afternoon of basketball.”
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