LeBron James Olympics exhibition interview
USA Basketball | Aug. 3, 2008
On Sunday, Team USA beat Russia 89-68 in an exhibition tune-up game for the upcoming Olympic basketball competition. Here's what USA forward LeBron James said to the media after the game:
Question: How much does the zone defense bother you?
LeBron James: We didn’t move the ball well offensively. We know we can. But defensively we continue to play great. We are going to give ourselves a chance to win every night if we continue to play defense like we’ve been playing.
Question: What’s the one thing you guys take out of this game?
LeBron James: Defensively we were unbelievable. Again. If we hold a team between 60 and 70 points, for the most part we’re going to win. We’re going to make enough shots to give us an opportunity to win ball games. You know you’re not going to have a game every night where offensively you’re in tune. It doesn’t happen. But one thing you can control is defensively, and once again we played a great defensive game.
Question: Can you assess what you did offensively against Russia’s zone?
LeBron James: We continue to get better against the zone. We moved the ball around, we had a few open looks that we didn’t knock down, but we did a great job of getting it into the interior and either kicking out for threes or going into the paint strong.
Question: Can you talk about the job Chris Paul and Deron Williams did against them.
LeBron James: Deron had 8 assists and that was great. They get into the paint and make it easy for the rest of us out on the perimeter and also in the interior. They did a good job.
Question: Talk about the foul trouble you had.
LeBron James: It means you’re out there being aggressive. You get fouls that way sometimes. I’ve got guys behind me who back me up.
Question: Looking ahead to Beijing, can teams slow you down like they did?
LeBron James: They can try. Russia did a good job of slowing us down a little bit. We still made our run at the end of the third quarter though. We don’t know, but can many teams keep up the pace with us? We don’t think so. We want to continue to defend the way we have been.
Question: What do you think of Chinese fans and how you were received today?
LeBron James: They’re unbelievable. They love the game of basketball. It’s been everything we expected and more from these fans. We’re going to try and give them another good showing on Tuesday against Ausralia and then head off for the Olympics.
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