LeBron James discusses the challenge of having to evacuate due to wildfires

The past week has been an extraordinarily difficult week for many members of the Los Angeles community. The cities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena have been completely ravaged by two wildfires, and many Los Angeles Lakers – including LeBron James and JJ Redick – have not been spared the effects.

Redick lost his home in the Palisades fire, a devastating loss of years of memories and a huge financial burden to rebuild. And while he certainly has the money to be able to do it, it’s still a massive loss and something that is a harsh reality for so many people in both the Palisades and Altadena today.

LeBron has been a little luckier as his Brentwood home is still intact. However, he and his family have not been in the house for days as their area is still under evacuation orders. The Lakers star discussed it and the difficulty level last week.

“Obviously, there’s been a lot of emotion,” LeBron said. “A couple of dear friends that lost their homes in the Palisades, and obviously my heart goes out to all the other families across not only the Palisades, but throughout LA County and all the surrounding areas because of the fire and things like that. .So it’s been a lot of emotions.

“Personally kind of gone. I’ve been off, personally. My family, we’ve been evacuated since Thursday night, so I’ve been in the hotel pretty much since we got back from Dallas. So it’s just figuring out it. But stay strong for each other. That’s the most important thing. Our friends who lost their homes were just there for them. Especially when you had children and you lose all their belongings , it’s just a lot to just try to even wrap your head around it.

“So I’m very happy that my family is safe, my wife, three kids, my mother, she’s been here. Everyone’s safe, but it’s just been off, completely off for obvious reasons. But I guess that hopefully things are contained or will continue to be contained and hopefully at some point we can start to push forward, move forward and kind of put it behind us, we can rebuild our city, rebuild this beautiful city and things of that nature.”

This isn’t the first time LeBron and his family have had to evacuate due to wildfires in the LA area. The same situation happened in 2019 and James talked about the differences and similarities between the two.

“Well, we had the experience of being able to lean on it a little bit. The difference between 19 and today is that in 19, it was the middle of the night, so we had to go right away. We had a little more time before we had to evacuate. We could get some things, get some possessions, whatever, some things that meant something to us, but our home certainly hasn’t been touched since the moment we left, but it says still there, for which we are grateful.

“We will hopefully continue to stand and wait patiently. Will be given to possibly go back to that and be together again, under our home, and to think about that, to know that families have lost their homes where they don’t even have that privilege, it’s just crazy to me. because of the fire and things like that. So we’re grateful, super grateful, but still, like thinking about all the families that had to go through the things that we had to go through this past week. It seems so much longer than a week.”

The Lakers had two games postponed due to the wildfires, but the team was very vocal about wanting to get back into action. LeBron explained why he felt that way and why it’s good that the league has resumed basketball action in Los Angeles.

“It’s definitely our job to know that we still have a job to do and we have to focus on our job, but also still be human and understand what real life is about. But I hope we go out on the floor and play like we played tonight. Not the way against San Antonio, but the whole way we played tonight, hopefully for the next few months or whatever it is, years until the city is back, like us, as a Lakers franchise, and the players just want to play for the Lakers, give hope and pride and excitement and things like that,” James said.

“Sports have always given people an opportunity to, like, temporarily forget everything they might be going through. We’re such a big part of the LA community, along with a lot of other sports teams, but we know how important the Lakers are to the community. Hopefully provide that for a lot of fans.”

Even if people like LeBron have the means to rebuild if catastrophic things happen, that doesn’t necessarily take away the emotional toll of things like evacuating for a week and not being 100% sure if your home will be there when you get back.

And he, like the entire Los Angeles community, is looking for something to rally around in the meantime. The Lakers appear to be one of those forces.

LeBron James moves into second place in All-Star returns

In the third All-Star polls, Lakers star LeBron James has moved from third place in the Western Conference frontcourt to second place, passing Kevin Durant.

Do you have subscribe to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to see player interviews, exclusive event coverage, attend live shows and more!