20 Dec 2012

Road-riding LeBron waging 'vendetta' against himself

6:31 am on 20 December 2012

The American Basketball star LeBron James says he is engaged in a "vendetta" against himself as he pushes himself to reach his physical peak and win a second straight NBA championship with the Miami Heat.

On Tuesday James, who spent his off-season playing in the London Olympics, was on court against the Minnesota Timberwolves for 42 minutes but the Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says he wasn't even breathing heavy.

Spoelstra says James has stepped up another level in terms of his conditioning and can handle the longer than expected regular season minutes for his team.

When Miami hosted the Washington Wizards on Saturday, James chose to cycle to the team's daytime shoot-around and the 45 minutes back home before doing the same in the evening for the game.

That's three hours of road cycling on a day in which he scored 23 points in a 102-72 win for Miami.