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 LeBron James Reveals Why He Doesn’t Drink Coffee
Mar 27, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts during the first half against the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images Mar 27, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts during the first half against the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is considered the gold standard when it comes to body maintenance. James is a unicorn in that he remained as productive as ever in Year 23. He may have lost a step physically, but he’s still one of the best transition players in the NBA and can feasibly take over the offense in spurts.

While James seems to have boundless energy, none of it comes from caffeine as the Lakers star admitted a bad experience with the Miami Heat turned him off of coffee forever.

“No, when I was in Miami playing for the Heat we had one early game start.” James recently told Bob Does Sports. “I think it was like 12 noon start and I got a f—ing horrible night of sleep. So I woke up the next morning, I was like super tired. I told my chef, I was like, ‘Hey, I need something like coffee. Just give me the most basic coffee that you could give me, I need a little bolt of energy.’

“So I drank it, got to the arena and my heart and my anxiety was racing. Like racing, all the way up until it got to the point where I told my trainer I was like, ‘I may have to sit this game out cause I’m not calming down.’ All the way up until like 15 minutes before the game started. The heart was racing, everything was just speeding up and I was like, ‘Oh no, coffee’s not for me.’ That’s the end of it. I haven’t had coffee since. I think that was 2012 maybe.”

Caffeine is is an easy way to kick start a person’s body, but for James he unfortunately experienced the downside of the stimulant. However, it’s easy to point to the 41-year-old’s production without coffee in his system and believe he performs just fine without it.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra must have appreciated having James at the peak of his powers and the two still hold in each in high regard. In fact, Spoelstra believes James is beating Father Time in Year 23 and it’ll be interesting to see how much longer he can keep going.

LeBron James feels he is winning battle with Father Time

The adage goes that Father Time is undefeated, but James has put up the best fight to date. He is still dominating the NBA despite being the oldest player in the league, a major accomplishment in of itself.

On James’ 41st birthday, he acknowledged that he thinks he’s beating Father Time and it’s hard to argue with him at this point.

This article first appeared on Los Angeles Lakers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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