Officials with the Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly joked about LeBron James' stamina after the four-time NBA MVP led the league in minutes played last season.
Per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin, a private joke among Cavaliers officials is that "the tread is off his tires" regarding James.
James appeared in all 82 games for Cleveland last season, the first time he's done that in his career. He also led the league in minutes played per game during each of the past two seasons, including 36.9 in 2017-18.
Despite being 33 years old, James said prior to the Los Angeles Lakers' season-opening loss Thursday that he has no intention of slowing down.
"I'm always fresh," he said, per McMenamin. "All my coaches want to figure out a way of how to lessen my minutes, I keep telling them I'm strong enough to play most minutes but they won't listen to me, so, it's OK. I like it."
James left the Cavaliers to sign a four-year deal with the Lakers in July. He led Cleveland to four consecutive NBA Finals appearances from 2014-18, including winning the franchise's first title during the 2015-16 season.
Nothing to see, yet
There is nothing to the rumor of a potential boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Khabib Nurmagomedov, said UFC President Dana White.
"Don't pay attention to it," White told ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto. "First of all, the Mayweather team has not approached us at all. Khabib is under contract with the UFC. Floyd is very good about getting his name out there when he wants to."
Buzz regarding a potential showdown between the two undefeated fighters has circulated ever since Nurmagomedov (27-0) defeated Conor McGregor via submission in the fourth round of their lightweight title fight at UFC 229.
Speaking to TMZ Sports, Mayweather (50-0) said he's interested in sparring with Khabib.
"I'm my own boss," Mayweather said. "So, I can't say what's going on on Khabib's end. But, on my end, we can make it happen."
Nurmagomedov's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told Okamoto on Thursday their camp is willing to listen if Mayweather wants to set up a second megafight with a UFC superstar.
Barkley fails, again
It was a busy offseason around the NBA, as usual, and it's hard to keep up with all the player movement that happened during free agency. So it would be easy to forget where some of the lesser-known names ended up once teams finished making their roster moves.
Fortunately, quizzes testing the knowledge of which players went to which teams last summer aren't given. That isn't the case for Charles Barkley, who gets put through the ringer at the start of each new season on TNT's Inside the NBA with the program's mock game show, Who He Play For?
As the title suggests, the crew gives Barkley a player's name, and he has to guess which team the player is on for that season. Historically, Chuck has not fared well in this endeavor, and watching him make wild, incorrect guesses is all part of the fun.
Barkley began the 2018 season by answering one of five questions correctly during Thursday's segment.
QUIZ
How many minutes has LeBron James averaged in 1,143 career regular-season games before Thursday night, and how many has he averaged in 239 playoff games?
ANSWER
James averaged 38.8 minutes a game in the regular season, while he has logged 42.o minutes in the playoffs.
Sports on 10/20/2018