LeBron James is offering a theory this week about the changing landscape of youth sports.
Speaking on the latest episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast, the Los Angeles Lakers star James spoke about what he sees as the biggest issue in youth sports today. James said that he believes that kids these days focus too early on playing just one sport and ultimately get burned out as a result.
“Me and my guys, we ran track and field as well, when we were like super-duper young,” said James. “We played football all the way through high school. We didn’t just cap it at one thing and just [do] one thing all year round. I think a lot of kids, they burn the hell out.”
You can see the full clip of James’ remarks below.
.@KingJames and @luka7doncic discuss the problem with youth sports today.
— Mind the Game (@mindthegamepod) June 1, 2025
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Indeed, James (in addition to basketball) played football in high school as a wide receiver and has often spoken in the past about how he ran track as a kid. James has also witnessed firsthand the shifting culture of youth sports as the father of 20-year-old Bronny James (who is now his teammate on the Lakers) and of 17-year-old Bryce James (who is still in high school).
As for James’ theory, he may have a good argument there. Plenty of other all-time great basketball players including Michael Jordan (baseball and football) and Wilt Chamberlain (long jump, high jump, shot put, etc.) played multiple other sports in their youth as well. But making kids these days focus exclusively on playing basketball runs the risk of having them lose their joy for the game at a young age (and of failing to pinpoint the one sport out of many that they might actually be best at).
On top of that, a bigger conversation can be had as well about modern-day AAU culture and its grueling schedule as well as its poor teachings of fundamentals. That is something that even the late Kobe Bryant also used to criticize.
