NBA analyst Colin Cowherd has defended LeBron James’ lack of interest in draft picks. As there were rumors of Kyrie Irving signing up with the Lakers the deal could not be completed as the team will be looking to invest in future draft picks.

Cowherd has put his weight behind James, saying he doesn’t want to be a mentor. The Lakers had offered a sign-and-trade package centered around Russell Westbrook to the Nets for Kyrie Irving. But the Nets currently aren’t interested.

On the Herd with Cowherd, he said, “There was a story this morning that LeBron doesn’t care about the Lakers picks amid the Kyrie Irving rumor. In fairness to LeBron, he’s never been into young guys.”

Cowherd added that James is not interested in mentoring young players in the upcoming season. James is himself at the fag end of his career and the upcoming season will be his 20th in the NBA.

“In fairness to LeBron, he’s never been like, ‘I want to play with a 19-year-old and watch him develop for four years.’ LeBron got business to do, like winning titles. He’s not interested in being your mentor and how to teach you to play basketball out of Michigan State or Kansas or Kentucky.

“So, I’ll defend LeBron on not caring about the draft pick. He never really has. The truth is it is called ‘senioritis.’”

“You see this all the time with performers. My entire life, seniors, everybody, they strive for greatness, they get to the pinnacle, they start winning stuff, and then they fight to stay on the top, and then they start doing things for paychecks.”

Meanwhile, earlier in the previous season James had shown interest that he would want to play with his son Bronny James. The youngster will be available in the 2023 NBA draft and the veteran will be a free agent that year. If both of them go on play in the NBA, they will be the first father-son pair to play in the same season.