"LeBron James"
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John, I just want to say, as right as we start at the top of the show, I just want to say, this is our 52nd episode of Smart List. 52! That's a year! It's been a year. That's a one freaking year. A whole year. God. This is the 52nd episode of Smart List! Smart. List. Smart. List.

Smart. Wise.

Oh my God. So yeah, let's get to it. This is, I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but this is our 52nd episode, which means we have hit one year. One year. Since we started the nonsense. 52 weeks. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? Remember when we first started talking about doing this? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I thought it was really just going to be three, four, five weeks, maybe something like that. And then COVID would be over and we'd be back to our day jobs. But

God, this is, thank you everyone for listening. Yeah, thanks to the listeners. And letting Will, Sean, and I continue to visit with one another every week. Can I just say that for me, it really, spending this last year with you guys in this way, even more than normal,

It's been a really great sort of antidote to an otherwise not amazing year. And being able to hang out with you guys has been fucking a real savior, to me anyway, for my mental health. I really mean that. Likewise. It's been a nice thing to be able to count on once a week. I feel so lucky to be

even closer to you guys and have this experience to echo what Will said together and the opportunity to laugh together, which to me is life. And it's not just the three of us. Obviously, it's our whole team. And the other part of that team is Bennett Barbacow and Rob Armjarv and Michael Terry. But we always know that Rob's name is always Rob Armjarv.

Is that how you say it, Sean? Yeah, I like to say it the phonetic way. I like saying Rob Am-J-erf. Well, that's how it's spelled. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So that's instead of Am-Yerf. Because even he doesn't know how you're supposed to say it. He doesn't even know how to say Rob. Oh, he doesn't know how to say the Rob part. Am-Yerf.

Bennett, Barber Cow, that's easy to say. And Michael Terry, that's easy to say. Yeah. But they make it happen. Those guys are fucking champs. And honestly, it's... We wouldn't be here without them. I want to see the socials line up in appreciation for Bennett, Rob, and Michael. Yeah. Truly, honestly, sincerely, thank you to anyone who has been spending some time with us and letting us keep the lights on, as I think they say.

Yeah, and putting up with our nonsense and knowing that we're just here having fun just like you guys, honestly. I'm so glad you guys don't have to pay for this. It's free. It's priced right. But we can announce, right, Jason? We can officially say that we are going to do a SmartList tour.

You're doing a Smart List tour. We're going on tour. That's right. Smart List is going on tour. We are going to six cities in North America. Yes. And we have a ton to discuss, dates, venues, even a special promo code for our listener. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's too much to make our guest wait for. So that's going to be at the end. But right now, we got to get to what might be our greatest of all time. Oh, oh. Yeah. We have with us someone that would be best described as a true force. Yes.

He's taken the gifts he's been given and the influence he holds and pointed them towards a full menu of things that are truly too long to mention in an intro. However, a couple to throw out there would be the creation of a world-class elementary school and a family foundation. He's part owner, Will, of one of the world's most famous soccer teams. What? And he has starred in five films.

He's married to his high school sweetheart. He has three kids. He was recruited to play football by Notre Dame. But instead, this fool took a gamble on basketball where he just can't seem to find any success. Guys, please meet Mr. LeBron James. Oh, no. Oh, my God. Did I have you fooled? That was a good intro right there, Jason.

That's pretty good. You've never been introduced like that before, right? People go on about the... No, Jason, that was a good one. It's a good one. Oh, my God. But truly, let me tell you something, LeBron. Going through, and I don't do a lot of research, as the guys will attest. I will go to a Wikipedia page, though. Your page is more of a book. Yeah.

And I just hit F it real quick. I didn't know where to begin. There's so much stuff. But truly the stuff about philanthropy and family and all that stuff we're going to get into because I think everyone else knows the other stuff. But, men, go ahead. Will, you got something to say. First of all, I was going to say I just took off. I was wearing a Lakers T-shirt. This is crazy. I just took it off because I worked out. And you don't want to get into my workout routine, LeBron, because it's pretty intense. I bet he'd love to hear it. I mean –

Well, these shoulders, you know they don't quit. I mean, I've tried to fire them, but they don't quit. But what about the Liverpool element? That was a real shocker to me. That's, you know, I'm not a smart guy. But, Will, did you know that? Will's a huge soccer fan, LeBron. I read that. I'm a big Liverpool supporter, and I have been for a number of years, and I'm friendly with a bunch. But I had read that you were part owner, which is so crazy because I'm like, another thing that LeBron and I have in common. Ah.

Oh, yeah. There it is. You know what I mean? The shoulders, the soccer stuff. The shoulders in Liverpool. LeBron, I have to say, this is...

This is especially exciting for me because I know who you are. Oh, boy. Yeah. We've had a few athletes on the show, and Sean just goes to – starts playing Candy Crush, and we pick it up after the guest goes away. No, this is absolutely thrilling. I can't believe you're here. This is so exciting. Thank you. I have so many things I want to say to ask you that I've just thought about. One of the things is –

You're such an incredible... Jason's right. You are a force. And you've been such an incredible... You're so iconic already, which is crazy because you're still a relatively young man, a lot younger than we are. We could be his dad. We could be his dad. But you've done so much. And it's so impressive to watch you do it. And you do it with such...

there's a grace about you because you, the part of the problem I think about being on top and I wouldn't know, but part of the problem is that you are subjected to a lot of, you know, slings and arrows, you know, from people from all sides. Not the least of which is, I think every year since you got drafted, people are like, who's the greatest of all time? Is it like...

They have, there's a poll every six hours. ESPN will put it on their page. Like, and who is LeBron greater than Michael Jordan? It's like, guys, he's LeBron. He's his own person. That, that shit must get exhausting. Be honest. It must be exhausting. No, it can't. It can't be exhausting. I mean, you said it, but, um,

I've always looked at it like anytime you compared or you even mentioned with the greats that ever played this game, it just become humbling for me. Cuz the same people they put me in a category with or saying compare this, compare this to that guy are the same guys that I looked up to for inspiration when I was growing up. And I needed that inspiration growing up in the inner city here in Akron of Ohio.

You know, to have, you know, the Michael Jorns and to have the, you know, the Kobe Bryants, to have Ken Griffey Jr. and Deion Sanders, all those unbelievable sports figures, you know, when I needed it, you know, they helped me. So it's like, wow, you guys are comparing me to these guys.

greatest players that I've ever seen when I was growing up. It's just like, it's such humbling, man. Yeah. The stats will certainly, um, put you in that category without even trying, but what you've, what you've done off the court, the stuff you don't need to do, but you find yourself drawn to do. And as a result of your success on the court has given you access to do and the capital to do, I find really, really admirable. Um,

I'm envious of it. There's a drive, though, that has to fuel that because you're tired all that doing the stuff that is your day job. How do you find... Jason's tired for you right now. I'm sure you have a great infrastructure of people that can identify some charitable endeavors that are worthy of your time and the attention that you can put on them.

I'm sure you rely on them a bit, but a lot of that's got to be your own self-drive and to motivate those people to be diligent in how they assess certain charitable organizations and whatnot. Where does that drive come from, that drive of philanthropy?

- No, you just, I mean, you said it, Jason. I think for me, the drive comes from my upbringing and, you know, growing up the way I grew up, you know, I'm a part of a single parent household, just me and my mother, no siblings, you know, not much care. My mom worked on and off, you know, my whole childhood. So, you know, every day was kind of a struggle for us as a family. So I felt if I ever was even put into a position, this is also part of my inspiration too, growing up, if I was ever put in a position where I succeed

at doing anything and I can make any kind of dollars, anything as far as capital, that I want to give a lot of it back. I want to give, you know, a lot of it back to my community because I understand what those kids are going through on a day-to-day basis because I've walked those same streets. I've tackled those same corners. I know the hardships of what a single parent... Mm-hmm.

household kid could feel like and the pressures and the adversity and all that stuff that comes with it. And to see that change, to see the change happen from your efforts has got to be unbelievably rewarding.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, to hear some of the family, Sean and like, well, you know, you guys, I mean, just to see some of the families come and tell, you know, either, you know, the faculty members that's at my school or the teachers that, you know, I've changed their lives or tell my mother because now my mom is huge.

into the foundation and she welcomes a lot of them. Is she a part of it? Yes, she's like one of the head advisor boards of my foundation where I basically have an apartment complex here as well where I welcome a lot of the underprivileged families in and we set them up with room and board, you know, that we're not in a position where they can, you know, afford their own living. So, yeah.

You know, it's pretty cool. My mom welcomes all these families in. That's awesome. So she's kind of like an ambassador, yeah? Exactly, exactly. But you say, like, you came up, you know, you talk about your own childhood, and to recognize, look, I really struggled, and so I want to be able to give back and really do it in a way, in a really practical way,

A lot of people talk about it, but you actually do it. And, you know, look at Sean. Sean grew up, you had a tougher, you know, childhood and stuff, and you turned your back on your community. You've never called anybody. He went the other way. He kept things simple. He lives in a mansion and he spends his money on watches. And I send people headshots. I send people headshots.

No, but surely... Free, though. Yeah. And Jason doesn't know what the... You know, Jason jumped the line famously in line for the first iPhone. So, like, we all have our own thing. Let me just say this. That's what I'm going to do. LeBron...

You could have... Every single incarnation of the yacht. You know what I mean? But my point is this. My point is you could have gotten... You've had everything. You've had so much success. You could have just sailed away on a yacht and never looked back. He's finding time to do that too, right? We get some yacht hours each year, yes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get some yacht hours. Jason, we get some yacht hours. Yeah, Daddy's got to relax. Wait, have you been on a yacht with LeBron and you haven't told us about it? No, but I know how to get to the Daily Mail, right? I mean, listen...

So you're a kid. So you're a kid. You're hanging out and you're thinking, boy, if I can ever get this jump shot to really go down in a consistent way, I might be able to get myself to a place where I could either get out of here or stay here and help give back to this community. What was the moment when you thought to yourself, oh, you know what? This is going to work. And I think I've got a very realistic chance of making it.

And now I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do if I do make it. Starting your plans about philanthropy. Because a lot of kids fantasize in school. When I'm older, I want to be a teacher so I don't have to do any of the schoolwork. What was that moment like and what were those first few plans? Do you remember that? Was there a moment? I feel like the beginning of my junior year, I was 16 years old. So it was right after my sophomore year in the summer, going into my junior year, I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

That'll do it. They dubbed me the chosen one at 16 years old. And, and,

No pressure, by the way, no pressure. Right, right. And the jinx of the cover on top of it all. Right, and the jinx of the cover. So a lot of NBA execs were talking and they were saying that, you know, if I entered the draft, you know, right now I could be the number one pick. But, you know, doing all those things. So I felt like I seen the success that I was having and the reason that I knew I wanted to come back and give back to my community is because I knew the success that I was having

Yes, it had to do with my God-given abilities and my talent and me putting in the work. But the support that I had from my coaches and my friends and my mom, they stayed on my ass every day. Like, listen, this is what we're doing. We all, listen, we have an opportunity to make this bigger than even what other people are saying.

That's not fucking up. It's tough on a 16-year-old because, listen, me and my friends, we want to do first year driving. We want to go to house parties. We want to go hang with the other high school kids and do kid things, but

You know, we can do it. Right. Yeah, well, Jason knows about the kid things, right? Like driving off the Warner Brothers lot when you're 16 in a Porsche. But listen... Wait, I have a question. I have a question. But with your... LeBron, with your kids, your own kids, what an incredible story you have to pass down to them about your struggle and then how you turn it around and how you're giving back.

Is it something that they get? And if they don't get it, do you grind it in their brains? It's like, you've got to keep looking at me. You've got to keep looking at my story. You have got to learn how to give back. I mean, it's so cool to have a dad that does all that. There's absolutely nothing I can do. Nothing I can do.

to give them the same moment or aspirations or like drive that I had. You can't teach ambition. No, I can't. I grew up in Akron, Ohio in the inner city, you know, and the hood is what we call it, the projects. And my kids are growing up four years in Miami on South Beach and now going on five years in Brentwood. So...

You know, and when we were here for those four year run, when I was in Cleveland, they were younger. You know, we're in it. We're now in the suburbs. So I went to public schools and challenging public schools until I got to high school because of my basketball ability. But these kids are growing up in private schools. So the one thing that I can do is instill of the morals and what we do in this house is.

And this is how you need to represent yourself when you leave the house. As a young man, I got two boys, two teenage boys. I got a daughter that's seven years old. So you give them the blueprint and then you got to let them, you know, I hope that they have some adversity.

You know, they need some hardships. They hope they find some along this way because you really only know who you are and you're only going to be able to come back from situations because the best teacher in life is experience. Yeah. Yeah. And I bet you lean on mom a lot too, right? Your wife, I bet your wife is incredibly important to with

All the time you're spending on the road, I mean, the three of us know as well, the amount of time you spend away from home is immense. And you really have to lean on your partner. Like my wife is a part-time dad too, you know? Yeah, for sure. They're literally the boss of the household. Like we're gone so much. We all know that, Dad. It's hard for us to come home and be like, okay, this is the hell we're doing. This is how we're doing it. Like, Dad, you've been gone for four or five months straight.

Like, like dad. Okay. Like mom already told us, go sit down, dad, and get your feet up. I mean, listen, it sounds like your kids are going to have a little bit of adversity with that, that sunset traffic coming out of Brentwood, getting over the 405. Forget it. The crawl to Barrington is just. In the afternoon? In the afternoon? No, thank you. Bottleneck. And now back to the show.

You know, you do all this stuff and you've got this school where you provide opportunities. I mean, Jason brought it up.

I love the way, by the way, as you were talking about growing up, you kept saying we, you know, that the people who are around you are saying we have an opportunity. We have an opportunity. You know, we got to keep going. We got to keep doing the things the way that you were part of something and that you relied, like as you talked about these people that you leaned on. I love that you talked about in that we. I think it's so important to sort of to have that kind of support system. But as you talk to kids who don't have support,

the jump shot that you had as you what do you say to those kids who are like look man I hit the lottery I had a tremendous amount of skill I had great people around me I had god-given gifts and I had the willpower to do it that was the perfect storm that's not going to be the experience for 99.9 percent of the kids no question no question about it that's the one thing that we have like at my school here we don't we don't even have a basketball complex at my school you

But we have an art room, we have a music lab, we have a technology lab, we're on computers. So we're every single day asking our kids, what do you want to do? A lot of them say sports, but a lot of them like, listen, I want to be a doctor.

You know, so we have doctors that come in and talk to our kids. A lot of them say, "Okay, I want to be a cop." You know, we got cops, you know, obviously at the front door when they walk in, they're so kind to our kids and they can talk to them and give them guidance. Like, what do you want to be? Like, what do you want to be? What's your aspiration? What are your dreams? You might not even know what your aspirations are right now,

but you do have dreams we all had dreams about what we wanted to be so you know if it's something that they have passion about we try to bring it to the school and try to give them the resources to you know let's let's see if we can tap into it and

You might fail that first one. Let's try it again. Or you might say, let's try something else. That's all about being a kid. You try so many things until you finally figure out, okay, this is what I want to do. And then let's try to give them the resources. That's my whole thing. I want to just give them the resources to be able to tap into whatever they want to do. I love that. Now, I want to ask you stuff about playing in the game because

You know, I played basketball when I was a kid, and I was like... Oh, boy. I was buying a chunk. No, I did. And I was like, when everybody... When the ball would be rebounded... I just did a legitimate spit. Yeah.

Here we go. When you're talking, when you're saying the LeBron, you're describing playing basketball to LeBron James. Sorry, I interrupted. Keep going. So when I was a kid, I played. Tell me about your experience playing basketball, Sean. I played basketball, and whenever there was a rebound and everybody would run to the other opposite end of the court, I'd go, no, you guys go. I'll catch you. I'm right behind you. Okay.

Seriously, you guys go. I'm so close. I'm just going to take a beat, but I'm right behind you guys. Take a beat.

But wait, but here's the thing. But I look at you, because I've been to a couple Lakers games, live courts. I was lucky enough to have courtside seats. Oh, boy. I have to say, seeing you play live and seeing the whole team play live is so much more thrilling than TV. But TV is thrilling, too. But to see it live, it's just unbelievably exciting. And I couldn't even possibly begin to understand that.

how you do what you do. But here's the thing. Here comes the question, guys. It's worth the wait. Fuck. When you're running down... I mean, it seems like it's endless... Do you get tired? Yeah. It's just an endless amount of energy. Who cuts the oranges? Do the parents take turns bringing oranges for halftime? Sean's gonna ask a question. Here it comes.

No, you've been doing it for so long. Don't you get tired? Oh, God. LeBron, I got a question.

Now, what about your foot? Wait, I want to know about injuries. My whole point was asking about injuries. Okay. So I'm obsessed with medical stories, right? I host another podcast. It's called Hypochondriactor because I'm an actor who's a hypochondriac. Anyway, and I just wanted to know what kind of injuries you've ever had. What was the worst one you've ever had? And did you play through it?

The worst injury I had tore my groin two years ago. How does that happen? Playing on Christmas Day in Golden State. Sean did the same thing in Mykonos. Yeah, yeah. But it was so worth it. It was just, I was sitting up there and I was hit hard.

Oh, my God. I swear, if I was in Meek and I was a term, I'd grow into Ben Wonky, too, I tell you that. Daily Mail would love it.

Oh, no, I did not keep playing. I felt like my balls was ripping off. Yep. Oh, God. I was over it. Yeah, it was over with. Oh, really? Yeah. Something that I think is very, very interesting, among many things, is Randy Maverick and Rich. Now, fellas, these are three of his best friends from growing up, and you guys figured out...

a sort of a four-legged table to go through the rest of your life. And everyone kind of talked about, I would imagine, what their lanes would be and how we can be a unit and we can drive this thing. What were those conversations like and how early did that start? Well, it started, I mean, it was early on. After my rookie year in the NBA, I realized at 19 years old that the representation that I was under at that time

wasn't best suited for me. And it wasn't going to allow me to grow, not only as a basketball player, but also as a, I wanted to be a businessman as well. I wanted to be in control of my business. And it was something that was unprecedented and shone upon in the NBA because everyone always expects for you to have an agent, an NBA agent.

But when I parted ways with my NBA agent and agency and started my company, LRMR, with Maverick, Rich, and Randy, people were like, they're uneducated. They don't know anything about the sports world. They don't know anything about business. This is going to be a complete disaster. For me, I didn't give a damn about what they were talking about because I feel like if I'm – who are the people to trust more than the people that I know? Yeah.

And we can all learn together because I don't want to learn at a rate that now these guys are so far below me, then how can I ever bring them into any room? Let's all learn at the same time. Let's learn at the same rate. Let's take bumps and bruises. Let's take injuries.

Let's fail at the same time while we all going along in this journey. So when we get to a point where, oh, we've done so much, we've learned so much, we've experienced, you know, failure, but we've done it together. So we know how to, you know, when the next point come up, we know how to attack it. So, yeah.

You know, that was my whole mindset. I think it's just incredible that not only were you guys successful at that, you didn't fall on your face. They did negotiate great contracts for you. You have found incredible business opportunities. But I'll bet what you're probably most proud of is that you were able to navigate all of that and still maintain the friendship. I'm sure it got complicated at times, but that you guys stayed strong

so close and so trusting and probably felt very equal. Um, everybody respected each other. I mean, I'm sure that takes a ton of work. It's like a marriage, right? No, absolutely. I mean, every day, every single day. And we're, and we're still going, I mean, and we're still, you know, we've been in this for almost 20 years now, but I mean, we're all relatively still young. I mean, I'm the, obviously I'm the youngest out of the crew. Uh,

But I'm 36. My guys are in their early 40s or mid-40s. And we are in a good place today. But we want to continue to climb because we want to continue to build and build relationships and build great content for everyone. Yeah, yeah. And you get to do with the people. You get to do with the guys, like you said, that you trust but who are your friends. And that's nice. And we go through the same thing here. I mean, we get to do this podcast with – I get to do with two guys that I love and who are my friends. And I'm not the youngest, but I'm –

I sort of, I'm not in my, I play 38, but you know, I'm sort of, I don't think so. I mean, I could probably, or like a 40 or just like a kind of a rugged 40. But the point is, is that we, we get to do it and I get that. And that's, it's part of the experience. I mean, you might as well do the experience the way you want. I love the way you also, you answer that. Like, you're like, people say that you guys didn't know what you're doing. You don't know the sports world and all that stuff. And you're like, I don't give a damn. Like,

Who gives a shit? Yeah, who gives a shit? Life is way too short. And that was kind of like my earlier question. Like, is part of the problem about being on top is people always have opinions and you hear it all the time. And you do, you know, you have a lot of people who support you and you're so great at what you do. But you always have this really organic kind of natural way about you. And you're very much, you're very authentic. And that comes across. And I think that that's so admirable. It sends such a great message of like,

All these critics, the people who want to... I remember the... Do you remember the decision, Sean? Do you know what the decision was? So when LeBron was going to leave Cleveland the first time he was deciding... And tell me if I got it wrong or whatever, but I think this is right. You were going to leave and you were deciding where you were going to go. And there were people who criticized it who still to this day have time on their hands enough that they want to go back and re-litigate something from 15, 18 years ago. It was international news, that whole thing. It was. It was. It was.

So what? Let him do it how he wants to do it. It's not your experience. Why are you mad about it? What the fuck do you got to do with it? You know what I mean? Yep, yep. I love that. It's funny, man. You know, so at the end of the day, I mean, you know, you be so successful. You try to be so successful to where when we reap the benefits, I do it with my friends. So, you know, when I see Sean and Mika knows and I'm with my guys, then we can all just...

Fucking, we can all tear our groins together and have some rosé right there. There you go. Rosé and ice. Sounds like an incredible weekend. What an image. So when you're talking about having success and having the courage to try to have success in other areas, one of the things you said was content. And, of course, you got Space Jam coming up, which looks incredible. That's so exciting. Yeah, that's cool. Where does this drive for entertainment, for entertainment?

acting, producing, and all that stuff. Were you always a fan of the entertainment industry? Or is that something that has just kind of grown? Yeah, Jason, always, man. When I was a kid, you know, not only was the inspiration coming from, like, sports figures, but it was also coming from, like, you know, TV shows that I was watching. Like,

I always felt like I wish I was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I wish I was the Fresh Prince of Akron, Ohio. You know, I was in the suburbs of Akron, Ohio, in Bath Township, and I could, you know, look up to a mansion, you know, coming from the inner city. You're the Fresh Prince of Brentwood. Yeah, yeah, the Fresh Prince of Brentwood. Like, I've always, I love that storyline. Or, like, you know, I wish, you know, at times, like, you know, just being in certain movies, like action movies and things of that nature growing up. So, like...

Yeah, like the passion of watching that and seeing that and being a kid, like just trying to find any inspiration. That's where it kind of came from. And I've always kind of respected that. I did not, had no idea of the damn hours that you guys did. - Oh my God. - Just watching paint dry. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. The hours, but I always respected it. - Let me ask you this. Like, look at what Dwayne Johnson has done. Could you ever see yourself

at some point retiring and then starting and having an incredible career as an action star in movies? I'm not against that. I mean, listen, The Rock, man. Dwayne Johnson is incredible. He's, I mean, shit, I was watching him when he was in the WWE. Right. You know, growing up and he had all the hair at that time, you know, and, you know,

But you could crush that, LeBron. LeBron, you'd be fantastic. I've seen you act. You get it. You absolutely get it. And you've got all the charisma and the size to be carrying around two or three weapons. I remember when you first hosted SNL, my ex-wife at the time, Amy, was on the show. And I remember we actually met briefly. I wouldn't expect you to remember. But at the time, everybody talking about...

how natural you were, kind of to what Jason was saying. Like, you were really great on that episode. Yeah, super comfy. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to have a hell of a... I like having a great time, man, and just diving into it. And, you know, I like...

Like, comedy's like really my thing because I'm a fucking jokester with me and my friends. And all we do is like rank on each other and joke on each other. But it's fun, man. What's the thing that's making you laugh right now? Are you watching a show or a movie or what's your brand of humor? Are you more of like a Monty Python silly guy or more cerebral kind of dry humor?

I'm a little bit of everything. So I'm a Seinfeld funny guy. Yeah. I'm also like a Wedding Crashers funny guy. Right. Yeah. And I'm a road trip kind of guy. Like I'm all of that. And I'm also like scary movie, like those type of people. Right.

Yeah, silly crap. Yeah, so I'm like all over the genre of comedies. Yeah, for sure. And where are you taking a lot of these in? On the plane, in between games, or are you a kind of guy that sits at home and nests and just gets all comfy on the couch? Yeah, I'm a guy that gets comfy on the couch. That's what I'm a guy. You and me both. With a glass of wine on the couch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Now, do you let your kids watch R-rated comedies?

I do. My boys do. How old were they when you let them start to watch stuff that was really kind of edgy, edgy comedy? Because I'm dealing with that right now with my 14-year-old daughter. Yeah, yeah. I'll let my boys start watching around like 10. Yeah.

11 years old, yes. My daughter can watch certain, but I don't let her watch. She's only six going on seven. So I'm going to wait until she gets a little older. Where are you on cursing? My kids have... Jason, what did you do? Wait, Jason, what did you just let your... Franny watch something. What was it? Pulp Fiction.

And, uh, she was confused in a couple of spots and I didn't bother. She loved the heroin overdose. She loved the EpiPen. Yeah. Jason. And this weekend, aren't you guys, you're, you're, aren't this weekend. Aren't you guys watching human centipede? Wait, well,

Wait, LeBron, where are you on cursing? My 14-year-old, I'm allowing her to now, I haven't started complaining about her cursing. You know, she's not like a sailor, but, you know, she's just casually using the S word or the F word or whatever. And I'm like, well, I guess I was doing that, or she's doing that with her friends. So why can't she do that with us? Where are you with that? The kids walking around the house? So my boys are, they have an exception to the rule of cursing when they're playing sports.

So they can curse when they're playing sports? Yes. Because, yes, they can curse when they're playing sports because there's a lot of emotion. I get it, you know. But then you get teed up, right? Yeah, you know, they can get teed up. But they don't, my kids don't mess with the refs much. But like, if they, you know, miss an assignment, they say, fuck.

Or something happened. Damn or shit. But my oldest son, in his past tournament, over the Fourth of July weekend, a kid was talking a little smack to him. And he told him to fuck off. And I started laughing. I started laughing. I thought that was hilarious. Wait, LeBron, I saw you in that tournament. And the reason I saw you is because it was on the internet. And I'm thinking like,

who's letting these photos be taken of this high school basketball game? Like, what is going on? Oh, my God. Are there photographers? Yes, yes. There was families with phones. No, they really had no. There were families with big lens cameras like they're on set.

Really? Yes. Trying to capture this stuff and sell it to the internet? Yeah, they capture it. Yeah, yeah. So, yep, yep. Maybe you should turn around and tell them to fuck off. Right, I should take a page out of my son's book. So, wait. So, if he spills the cereal in the house and he says, God damn it, son of a bitch, that's not okay. Right? That's when he's got to go to his room. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Hey, what the hell are you talking? Oh, sorry. Sorry, Dad. And if you were to punish him, what are the punishments? Like with my kids, you take away the iPad and that straightens them out. What's the kryptonite there? We tried taking away his video game system before. Okay, he still had his phone. Right. And then without his phone, okay, then he had his iPad. Yeah. And then he had his desktop. If he didn't have his desk, he had his desktop. Yeah.

What are you going to do? Sending them to the room is actually not a punishment. No, it's not a punishment. Yeah, they want to be in the room. I'll just tell them, come downstairs and sit down here with mom and dad. Just come sit down here with mom and dad. Tell us about your day. Right, right, exactly. I say if you guys don't, if you don't, you know, smarten up, I make them FaceTime with Sean.

Yeah. And they shape up real quick. They really shape up quick. Jason, you had an incident. Didn't one of your daughters spill some electrolytes recently? That was a tough moment for you. And now back to the show.

Talking about electrolytes, doing my incredible research, LeBron, tell us about Ladder. What's Ladder? So Ladder is a supplement. It's a powder form supplement that you put into water. It has electrolytes. We also have pre- and post-workouts. So what happened was in 2012, I caught cramps during the NBA Finals. Yeah.

My legs, I could not get the cramp out. So I was able to work with some scientists from Harvard and some other institutions. And we was able to find all organic product that helps out with electrolytes and it gets to the system faster. And it stopped, I haven't had,

I haven't had that problem in nine years after that. I want some of that. I'll make sure I get some to you guys. We got it recorded here. I'll make sure I get some ladder to you guys. Yeah, I would love that. LeBron, I want to know like...

you know, everybody associates you with the obvious things that we see, like the talent in basketball, the talent on the screen when you decide to act. What is the thing that would be so surprising? Would I ever find you at the Hollywood Bowl listening to some classical music? You know what's funny, Sean, that you say that? I love classical music. Oh, you do? I really do. Like, if you would happen to pull up on the side of me when I'm not in the dark, dark tent car. Yeah. Yeah.

You could catch me at a light listening to some old Beethoven, Mozart-type music. As opposed to the new ones? Yeah, as opposed to the new ones, yes. You know, that's...

I'm fully addicted to that stuff. And so is Sean. Sean's a classically trained pianist, right? Yeah. Oh, wow. But that's cool. I love that. Now, are you ever listening to classical music on your headphones as you're getting ready to play? Or are you listening to something that gets the blood flowing a little bit more?

Nah, I'm listening to something to get the blood flowing a little bit more before I play, for sure. Yeah, for sure. And that changes each game? Or is there like a go-to that if you need to really get it going... Yeah, like who is it? Do you want to share it? It's not a go-to. It's like it changes. It's not a go-to. You know, I'm listening to a lot of like hardcore hip-hop. You know, it could be like either Wu-Tang or...

or it could be like some DMX, some early DMX, or some NWA. I want to get to a real, or even like Eminem, when he was doing his thing at a higher level too. So I tap into it to a whole another, I'm not the father at home with the kids, LeBron, when I tap into that mode. I'm like-

Get the hell out of my way. I'm ready for war. I'm ready for war. Yeah, you should listen to our podcast right before the game. Just with your headphones on. And you're coming in. That's going to give you the fighting spirit.

Tell us a little bit about Space Jam before we let you go. You've been very generous with your time, but I'm very, very curious about this because that was a great first film. This one is a pickup where it left off. How is it different and what really drew you to it? No, it's different. First of all, it's totally different from the first one that came out 25 years ago. But I was very intimidated just from –

When the script came to me and I sat it on my desk, I was very intimidated just because I understand, you know, the legacy behind the first one. You know, I was one that was like in awe of it. I was 12 years old or 11 when it first came out and loved the Looney Tunes. Obviously, my aspiration for Michael Jordan is out of this world. So very intimidated, but I was able to get myself to a point where I was like, I want to...

I want to do this. I felt like, you know, the Space Jam legacy is so iconic and so great. I wanted to be a part of the legacy. And obviously the movie is now called A New Legacy. It's kind of how I worked myself out. But we was able to, I worked with a great director, Malcolm Lee. Don Cheadle was in the film as well. He's great. Yeah, so I love him. He helped me out a lot when we were on set. But I just dove into it. I gave him.

you know, everything to it. How'd you like working with all that green screen and all that? Oh, man. I need you to look over here and just trust that later we're going to paint in a little character. You got to look at like a little C-stand with an X on it, right? Exactly. It's like working with Sean. Just a nightmare, right? Yeah, working with Sean. Or you mean the green screen. Oh, my goodness. Green screen gives more. No, it was a nightmare the first few weeks. Yeah. Of course. It's weird, right? So it's super weird because they're like, no, no, no, your eye, you have to be looking up.

So, LeBron, was that like a three-picture deal or we're going to see how the first one goes or what did you do? Is it just the one? No, no. It was just the one. But, I mean, listen, I've been hearing so much about people's reaction to it so far that I've actually seen the movie so far. It's going to be huge. We got an opportunity to private screen it. It's going to be huge.

You know, if Warner wants to tackle it again, I wouldn't mind trying to see if we could fit the right script in and keep it going. But I think this one is going to surprise a lot of people. This is a family movie. It's a family movie with a lot of laughs, obviously a lot of looniness. I'm dealing with the damn tunes. They craziness.

That's great. Is your daughter excited about it, or are your sons a little too old for it, or what? My daughter is super excited about it. She doesn't know. I mean, she's too young to know about the original tunes, but now because of her dad, she's getting back into it now. Was she on the set, and was she like, wow, look at all this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My whole family stopped by set a few times, and they're just like, wow. My boys are 16 and 14. They only care about how cool that the person that's playing them in the movie looks.

Like, Dad, does he look like me? Is he wearing my hairstyle? Is he dressed in the right way? Like, I don't want somebody playing me and not, like, being me. So you cast some actors to play your sons? Yes, we cast the actors to kind of look like my family. We changed the names, but they are, yes, I got an older son, a younger son, and a daughter and a wife in the movie. So, yes, it's kind of the same. Your kids didn't have approval over that casting?

No, I didn't let them because it would have took too long. I said, Dad got to get on with work, all right? And after long hours, did you mix them up? Oh, the kids. Yeah, I almost brought my fictional family home one time. Oh.

Well, the good thing, as long as I don't bring the fictional wife home, I was good. Yeah, right. Wait, so LeBron, let me ask you, after all this stuff and everything you're doing, get back to basketball. You've had a lot of success with the Lakers already. I don't want to put you on the spot, but I mean, you could conceivably just keep going. You're so good at what you do. You're still at the top of the game. How long do you see yourself playing for the Lakers? And how cool is it playing for the Lakers? It's a great storied franchise. Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I

I truly hope that I can finish my career with the Lakers and how many years that is. If it's four, five, six, whatever, seven. - There we go. - I hope I can continue to play the game. I love being in LA. My family loves being in LA. Being with a historical franchise like the Lakers is something like, it's like me being in Space Jam now. I never thought it'd be possible. You think about Kareem and Magic and Wilt and Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Kobe Shaq, the whole list goes on. - And Louis Cage. You know Louis Cage? - Louis Cage, the great Louis Cage.

Louis King's the greatest Lakers fan of all time. He's like the greatest. Well, LeBron, can't thank you enough for spending some time with us. Oh, man, appreciate you guys, man. That was really exciting. What a thrill. We're all huge, huge fans of yours and feel very, very flattered that you chose to spend some time with us. So thank you. I appreciate it. Jason, Will, Sean, I appreciate it, man. Hopefully see you guys in person soon, man. Yeah, that'd be great. All right, pal. Can't wait, man. Such a fan. I appreciate it. Love you guys. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

I could have talked to him all day, but I wanted to respect his time. He had a hard out, and I think we just... We were like one minute over it, but man, I could talk to him forever. What an admirable career he's had so far. I have to be honest, like...

I was floored. I was like, wait, what? Pretty stunning. That's LeBron James looking at us. That's LeBron James, the living legend. That is so crazy. He was one of the earliest people I sent to Michael, our producer, to see if we could get

And I honestly had forgotten that I'd put him down as one of the people I'd love to grab on my list. And then he sent me a text a couple days ago saying, so LeBron's people reached out. They can do it on this day, but only this time. So I was like, oh, my God, that's right. LeBron James, he's going to do it. Like, I've been in, like, a panic for, like, 36 hours. Like, what?

We're going to be talking to LeBron James. And then doing the research, looking at his – I'm just like, screw this. I just – I can't. There's too much. It's unbelievable. It makes your neck – I mean, after like only – it was only a couple of weeks ago that we had Thoreau. And then now we have LeBron James. And now LeBron. I didn't think we could get any higher. Yeah.

I know, because we were so scraping with Justin and his stories about it growing up. And I don't want to get back into his bullshit. All the MVPs Justin has gotten. You know what I mean? But Thoreau's BS. Justin's Wikipedia page, Mike. I know. Wrote it himself. The shoulders is, you know, there's a comparable element there on the shoulders, but not much else. He does. He does. I get it.

I don't know why, but whenever we meet like just huge, gigantic celebrities like LeBron James, I'm so surprised that like they're just normal and down to earth people. Like he is so down to earth. Even though he's literally huge and gigantic. Yeah. And off the earth. He spends a lot of time off the earth in the air.

Yeah, he's got great, great leaps, incredible vertical. Yeah. Right. But, you know, we are very generous with our, oh my gosh, this person was so great and we love them and they're so down to earth. But genuinely, this guy, I mean, he could, he doesn't need to talk to us.

He doesn't even talk to anybody. And Jason, you're right. We do do that a lot. We do do that a lot. A lot of the episodes, we're like, oh my God, this person was so great. And we do feel that way in the moment. We're not lying. We really like the people. But this guest could literally qualify as the greatest of all time.

Yeah, he could. I could go on forever, but let's not. Let's give the listeners what we promised, which was a little bit more detail on our tour. Yeah, let's talk about the tour. Yeah, sorry. Let's get back to the tour. Let's get back to the tour. So we're going to six cities. So we start in Toronto, Massey Hall, Wednesday, February the 2nd. And then February 4th, we go to Boston, Massachusetts. I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Bach or Botch Center Wang Theater. The Wang Theater, yep.

And then February 5th, Brooklyn, New York at King's Theater. Yep. February 8th, Chicago, Illinois at the Chicago Theater. Yes, Sean. And then where are we going February 9th? James?

Jason, can you guess? We're driving. Yeah, we are driving. So we're going to fly between those cities and then from Chicago, we're going to just up the coast there a little bit, the lake coast. It's not really on the coast. No, it's more central. It's nowhere near the coast, but go ahead. Well, the coast of the lake, right? Sure, sure. No, you're thinking Milwaukee. But where are we going, Jason? Where are we going to end up going? Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin. That's right, Madison, Wisconsin. At the Orpheum Theater to see Tracy, my sister. On Wednesday, February 9th. Tracy, you better start laying out your outfit right now because you're coming up on stage. And then we end on February 12th, which is Saturday in Los Angeles, California at the Orpheum Theater. All right.

And just like the show, we can't announce who the guests are. Those will be a surprise on the night. But here's what's really, really cool for you guys who have been so awesome and kind and loving to be listening to us all the time. We wanted to give you guys something in exchange, which is a head start on tickets. So if you go to smartlist.com and put in the password, which is...

Tracy, spelled with an E, spelled with an E, T-R-A-C-E-Y, you get a head start on tickets before the rest of the general audience. So when you want to go and you want to buy tickets to this tour, you just use the code Tracy, T-R-A-C-E-Y, right? Mm-hmm.

Correct. And it's starting today, Monday, 9 a.m. Eastern through Thursday at 10 p.m. local time. And tickets go on sale to the public this Friday at 10 a.m. local time for all those venues. And Thursday, July 15th at 10 a.m. local is the local venue presale.

So head to our website to buy tickets and you can get more information at smartlist.com. And again, Wednesday, February 2nd, Toronto, Massey Hall. Friday, February 4th, Boston, Massachusetts. Saturday, February 5th, Brooklyn, New York. Chicago is February...

Tuesday? February 8th. Wednesday, Jason, February 9th. You know where we're going. Just up the coast there, right? Just the coast of... Just up the eastern coast there to Wisconsin. Yeah, to Wisconsin. I guess they didn't have a geography class in the trailer school at Universal. And then Saturday, February 12th, back home in Los Angeles with our family and our friends and everybody at the Orpheum Theater. So, guys, we're so excited to bring this show to you. And we're so...

So honored that this is even a possibility and we can't wait to have fun with y'all live. Hope to see you there. Anyway, see you at the show. I'll see you guys at the show. We're going to go together, right? We'll go together. Let's go together. We'll travel together. We'll stay in the same hotel room together. We'll stay in the same bed. We'll stay in the same hotel room. We're going to shake hands.

We're going to shake hands. We're going to bump fists. We're going to high-five people. I know Sean's going to take a bow probably, maybe a call or something like that. I'm going to wear tails. I'm going to wear tails. Is that cool? Believe me, Sean's going to have a spotlight on him, so he's going to do a fucking song. You watch.

A top hat and cane. I'm set. So anyway, so that's all the info that you need to have for our big tour. I mean, that's it. Those are the dates and the cities and the... It's very exciting. How great is it that the promo code is Tracy, again... T-R-A-C-E-Y. T-R-A-C-E-Y. And that's where you can go and you can be... Buy your ticket! Buy your ticket! Buy!

Bye, them. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. If you like SmartLess, you can listen early and add free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.