Being an NBA player can take a toll on a family. Players are on the road, practicing and working for a large portion of the year, taking time they may otherwise spend with your wife and kids. Chasing greatness, well, that’s another story altogether. Just ask LeBron James.
“I am addicted to the process. I’m addicted to the process,” James said. “It’s so funny. I just told my wife the other day, I apologized to her. She was like ‘What are you apologizing for?’ I said ‘Because the journey that I’m on to want to be the greatest to ever play this game or to the point where no one ever forgets what I accomplished, I’ve at times lost the fact of how important you are to this whole thing. … I want you to understand that along this journey while I’m playing this game there will be times that I lose the fact of how important you and my three kids are – my babies are,'” said James on a recent Road Trippin’ podcast, hosted by Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye (h/t Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk).
It’s probably a good thing for James that his wife seemingly didn’t know what he was apologizing for until he clarified. We don’t know exactly how much time he spends with his family, but this isn’t the first time he’s talked about it publicly. Last season, he watched movies with his children instead of a pivotal playoff game between the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat.
LeBron said he watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Interview with a Vampire" and "The Punisher" w/ his kids instead of MIA-TOR Gm 5
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) May 12, 2016
All things considered, if James is struggling to find time with his family, at least he’s aware of it. The first step to fixing a problem is admitting it exists.