Although the regular season hasn’t even started yet, LeBron James has already had his first complaints about the Los Angeles Lakers, the team he just made history for when he took the court with his son Bronny earlier this week.

Sharing on social media, the 39-year-old superstar said he felt extremely confused when he had to spend nearly 6 hours flying just to play a friendly match (NBA Preseason) in Milwaukee.

“ Can someone explain why we have to get on a plane to Milwaukee for a preseason game? ” LeBron James posted on the X platform.

The post prompted some hilarious comments. Former player Richard Jefferson (a former teammate of LeBron’s, now retired and a TV anchor) responded: “ I’m surprised you got on the plane .”

James replied, “ I was surprised too ,” with an emoji of a disappointed hand holding his head.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ official account also joined in the fun, replying to LeBron James’ post with a photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron at the NBA All-Star game two years ago.

Speaking more seriously, Lakers head coach JJ Redick wants the club to schedule friendlies better, concluding: “This is definitely not a schedule that is beneficial to the team.”

How is the preseason schedule arranged?

According to many major news sites, the NBA preseason schedule is not arranged by the league organizers except in some special cases (which will be noted below). Instead, the teams will contact each other and agree in advance on the time and location of the match.

Next, the two teams will register with the NBA to update the general preseason schedule of the entire league, promptly informing media channels, press and fans.

The only rule the league has is that each team cannot play more than six preseason games. As long as it is under six, clubs can play as many games as they want. On average, teams have played around four friendlies in the past few years.

In special cases, such as commercial matches in foreign countries such as China, Japan or most recently Abu Dhabi (UAE), the NBA will select the matchups, schedule and plan the entire tour for the teams.

So what’s the story at the Lakers?

Back to the Los Angeles Lakers, the purple and gold team has 6 preseason friendlies before the new season. However, none of the matches will be held at the Lakers’ home field Crypto.com Arena because the arena is in the process of urgent renovation.

This forced the team to arrange friendly matches on away grounds. They played their first two preseason games in Palm Desert, California, about a two-hour bus ride from the Lakers’ training facility.

In the remaining 4 friendly matches, LeBron James and his teammates will fly to Milwaukee to play 1 match against the Bucks, then return to Las Vegas to meet the Golden State Warriors, then move to Arizona to face the Phoenix Suns before returning to San Francisco, to play again with the Warriors.

In addition to locations that are quite close together such as Phoenix, San Francisco, Las Vegas or Palm Desert (taking no more than 2 hours by car or plane), Milwaukee Bucks is 2,800km from Los Angeles and requires nearly 6 hours of flight.

And despite traveling so far, the Lakers only played one friendly match before returning to the area around California. Perhaps that’s why LeBron James was not satisfied.

According to Yahoo Sports, the Los Angeles Lakers flew to Milwaukee to play the Bucks because the two teams had an agreement to play a pair of preseason matches in two years.

Since last season the Bucks flew to Los Angeles to play the Lakers, this season it’s the purple and gold team’s turn to travel to Milwaukee to play.

So is the preseason of other teams as “miserable” as the Lakers?

The Los Angeles Lakers actually have a heavy schedule in terms of games but not so much in terms of travel. The teams with the most flight hours for this year’s preseason are the Denver Nuggets and the Boston Celtics.

The 2023 and 2024 champions played two exhibition games in the United Arab Emirates as part of the NBA’s annual promotional program (Abu Dhabi Games).

The flight to Abu Dhabi alone takes about 11 hours from Boston and 16 hours from Denver. Immediately after the aforementioned pair of matches, the defending champion Celtics also flew to Canada to face the Toronto Raptors (about 2 hours flight), while the Denver Nuggets chose to travel to Minnesota (also about 2 hours flight) to play a friendly against the Timberwolves.