Lakers’ LeBron James says family evacuated home amid Los Angeles wildfires | News, results, highlights, stats and rumours

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James told reporters the ongoing wildfires in Southern California have forced his family to evacuate their home.

“Personally, I’ve been off,” James said after the Lakers’ 117-108 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night. “Personally, my family, we’ve been evacuated since Thursday night, so I’ve been in a hotel pretty much since we got back from Dallas. So it’s just figuring it out. But be strong for each other. It’s obviously, that’s most important.”

James also said some of his friends lost their homes to the wildfires, tells journalists:

“I have a couple of dear friends who lost their homes in the Palisades. Obviously, my heart goes out to all the families, not only in the Palisades, but throughout LA County and all the surrounding areas because of the fire… It’s been a lot of emotions. Personally, I’ve been away.

“… I’ve just been completely out of it for obvious reasons, but hopefully things are contained or will continue to be contained. And hopefully at some point we can start to push forward and move on and put it behind us and rebuild our city , rebuild this beautiful city.”

Sore Minyvonne Burke and Liz Kreutz from NBC News, officials said about 180,000 people in the Los Angeles area have had to evacuate their homes because of the wildfires, and thousands of structures have been destroyed.

At least 25 people are confirmed to have died in the fires, but the true number of victims is still unknown.

Lakers head coach JJ Redick spoke at length last week about losing his rental home in the fires and the impact of the devastation on his community: