The Associated Press named LeBron James as its Male Athlete of the Decade. James joins Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, and Arnold Palmer as other recipients for the honor.

"You add another 10 years of learning and adversity, pitfalls, good, great, bad, and any smart person who wants to grow will learn from all those experiences. A decade ago, I just turned 25. I'm about to be 35, and I'm just in a better [place] in my life and have a better understanding of what I want to get out of life," said James, who turns 35 on Monday.

Tom Brady and Usain Bolt took second and third in the voting.

James, who is close to passing Kobe Bryant for 3rd in all-time scoring, admitted that passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for first place is within reach. 

"I would be lying if I said I don't see it. Obviously I'm not trying to say, 'OK, well if I play this amount of time, if I average this' ... I'm not doing that because I've never done that with my career. I've always just kind of let it happen. Whatever happens, happens. But I see it. I do see it."

LeBron James will play against the Portland Trail Blazers despite suffering a groin injury.

James re-aggravated the injury against the Clippers on Christmas Day.

It is not known whether James will play in the second half of the back-to-back against the Mavs on Sunday.

The Lakers are currently on a 4-game losing streak. 

LeBron James remains questionable to play against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night due to a groin contusion.

Frank Vogel said that he will make his decision on James' availability following the team's shoot-around. James added that he will go through his game-day routine as if he were playing.

The Lakers are currently on a 4-game losing streak. 

The Los Angeles Clippers' win on Christmas Day over the Los Angeles Lakers drew a 12.0 rating in the Los Angeles market.

The game had the highest rating for the Los Angeles market since 2011 and up nine percent versus 2018 when the Lakers played at the Golden State Warriors.

The game was also the second most-watched Christmas primetime game ever with 8.8 million viewers.

Both the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers tried to downplay the significance of their highly anticipated game on Christmas Day. The Clippers are now 2-0 on the season against the Lakers.

"It was another road game," Kawhi Leonard said. "Christmas didn't have nothing to do with it."

"It's a long season," LeBron James said. "It's a marathon."

"It does nothing," Leonard said when asked what his team's victory meant to the Lakers-Clippers rivalry. "It's one game out of a season. Whoever won this game was not going to win the L.A. championship or anything. Both teams got their eyes on the biggest prize."

Anthony Davis began thinking about requesting a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans around Christmas Day in 2018. The Pelicans were not on the NBA's lineup on Christmas Day last season and the team was 15-19.

“I think it was just the wins weren’t adding up, and it seemed like we weren’t making the playoffs," Davis told Yahoo Sports. "Everyone around me and everyone who knows me knows that I want to win. And I didn’t feel like we were going to be able to do that last year. I want to be able to win. We got off to a great start. We were 4-0. Then guys got hurt and little things started to go south. But my mindset at the time was to keep trying to lead my team.”

The Pelicans continued to struggled in January and requested a trade on January 28th.

"You don’t have a lot of time in this league. It goes by very fast," he told Yahoo Sports. "So for me, it was about putting myself in position where I can win before this career is over. And hopefully win several championships and have several winning seasons. That’s what was going through my head at that time. I’m not sure what the record was, but I felt like it was time for me to at least let the organization know where my head was at.”

The Los Angeles Lakers were always his preferred destination leaving the Pelicans, but Davis thought he might have to settle for another team due to the bad blood brewing between the two franchises.

“There were several teams in mind," Davis told Yahoo Sports. "My agent [Rich Paul] was doing a good job talking to the front office and management over there. He was the one communicating back and forth with them, and I was just trying to continue being a leader over there and still playing when they allowed me to. I’m not sure what was really being talked about, but the Pelicans didn’t do anything. So I still tried to lead that team, and when I got a chance to play, I played my heart out. It’s basketball. I’m still going to be a professional, and any time I’m on the floor with four other guys, I’m going to go out there and compete.”

LeBron James aggravated a groin injury during the Los Angeles Lakers' Christmas Day loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

James could miss some games due to the injury.

"I felt healthy going into the game," James said. "I got kneed in the groin taking a charge from Pat Bev, and it kind of set me right back to where I was five days ago."

James suffered a torn left groin last Christmas and was the first major injury of his career. The injury that James is currently dealing with is on the right side of his groin and is far less dire than the injury he suffered to the left side of his groin last season.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis are both questionable for the Los Angeles Lakers game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Christmas Day.

James has been dealing with a thoracic muscle strain. Davis tweaked his knee after stepping on a wet spot on the floor during the Lakers' loss against the Nuggets.

The Lakers have lost 3 straight games heading into their Christmas game. 

Anthony Davis has yet to publicly commit his future, "the leaguewide expectation is that (he) will be in a Lakers uniform for the foreseeable future," according to Bobby Marks of ESPN.

Davis becomes eligible to sign an extension with the Lakers on Jan. 7 because he waived his trade bonus when dealt by the New Orleans Pelicans.

Davis is eligible for a four-year, $146 million extension starting Jan. 7 and a five-year, $202 million deal in July.

The Lakers are built to compete for titles while no teams with 2020 cap space can offer that same chance immediately.

Magic Johnson had planned to be part of the Los Angeles Lakers' meeting with Kawhi Leonard despite his resignation several months prior as president of basketball operations.

The NBA reminded Johnson that he would not be allowed at the meeting since he no longer was employed by the Lakers and had resumed his presence as a media personality.

Leonard and his camp had sought privacy in his free agency process, but Johnson spoke publicly about his involvement with the free agent.

The notion that Leonard's decision would be impacted by Johnson didn't add up since he was no longer involved with the team.

“We did exactly what (Robertson) asked us to do,” a Lakers official involved in the process said. “They never said anything about keeping Magic’s mouth shut.”

A source with knowledge of Toronto’s process said the Raptors never truly believed that the Lakers were an option for Leonard.

The Lakers continued to pursue Leonard because one of their players had been told that Leonard truly wanted to join their team, according to a source.