The Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James was ready to take on the challenge of guarding Jimmy Butler in Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals, according to Mike Penberthy.
The Lakers assistant coach revealed that LeBron asked to be assigned to guard Butler even if it meant he had to do it for 48 minutes.
Penberthy praised James for showing leadership by not only not shying away from guarding the opposition’s best player, but actually asking for such assignment.
Per Ryan Ward of Lakers Daily:
Game 6. We sat down. We had a game plan set in place. We sat down to do our usual. We turned on the video. We walked through Miami.
LeBron says, ‘Coach, I want to guard Jimmy [Butler]. I want to match his minutes. I feel like I need to match up with him the whole game. I don’t want anybody else to guard him. I want to guard Jimmy Butler.’
Game 6 highglights:
