LeBron James said weight loss had nothing to do with basketball

Friday marked my favorite part of Fall, media day in the NBA. Most teams will open up NBA training camps next week, but a few started earlier because of preseason games taking place outside the USA. One of those teams happens to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Obviously Cavs fans are excited about the return of King James to his home state. Over the summer, LeBron dropped some weight. There was speculation that the weight loss was for a competitive advantage – as if he needed another – but LeBron set the record straight on Friday saying it was a personal challenge that didn’t have anything to do with basketball.

“It had nothing to do with basketball. I should have wrote a letter about that, too – to stop the speculation of why I did it. Every summer I challenge myself to do something different that’s outside the box…

“So I decided to do this particular diet this summer for two months. It had nothing to do with basketball; nothing at all. And once I set out a goal I like to accomplish it, and in the process I lost some weight, and then in the process stories came out…

“I’m 29 years-old and can still fly above the rim. I don’t need to lose weight to do that; not at this point in my career. The great thing about it is that I can see how can my body transform. So that as I get older in my career if I need to lose some weight or shed some weight, I can see where I can get down to.

It had nothing to do with basketball. But it did make me quicker, so it helps our team.”