With the Los Angeles Lakers' season recently coming to an end, LeBron James has had more time to devote to some of the other aspects of his life, including his recently re-launched “Mind The Game” podcast with co-host Steve Nash.

Recently, James and Nash were joined by James' Lakers teammate Luka Doncic for an episode of the podcast, and one of the topics discussed was the current influx of youth basketball players who participate in the sport on a year-round schedule.

James apparently isn't a huge fan of this model.

“I think a lot of kids burn the hell out,” said James, per Mind The Game on X, formerly Twitter. “You're just telling them to do this one thing all year round, just play basketball, just play volleyball, just play soccer all year round. You burn out at 22, 23, 24, or younger.”

Indeed, athlete burnout has long been a criticism leveled at the current AAU-dominated landscape of youth basketball, out of which several stars of today's game have emerged.

The fact that athletes are often playing basketball year-round beginning as early as elementary school has in some cases been attributed to the rise of injuries in the current NBA, as players have much more basketball mileage on their bodies by the time they get to the league than in previous generations.

AAU was just starting to emerge when James played high school basketball in the early 2000s, but as he noted in his podcast, even the best players were encouraged to diversify their sports palate back then. James himself was a star football player during his time at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.

Others have pointed to the current American system of youth sports as a reason for the perceived lack of superstars born in the USA in the modern NBA.

Whatever the truth is, when James speaks, people tend to listen.