Just over 20 games remain in the regular season before the NBA playoffs begin. Of course, players don’t want to get ahead of themselves, but it’s important to prepare for what is to come. Even though the Lakers chances of reaching the playoffs remain a long shot, veteran LeBron James has already begun training with his off-the-grid method.
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For those unaware, LeBron ensures his focus is completely on basketball once the postseason arrives. The league’s all-time leading scorer removes not only social media from his life, but lives without his phone for the duration of the playoffs. He refers to this action as Zero Dark Thirty mode.
Zero Dark Thirty is a reference to a military term which highlights the time when armed forces move in darkness. James first began using the phrase ahead of the 2013 playoffs, by making a post on Twitter. It has become a ritual ever since.
Some people have viewed LeBron’s tactics as another means for attention, but that is far from the case. Going off-the-grid has helped James tremendously, which he explained in detail in the recent Mind the Game episode.
“Who’s going to hold me more accountable than myself?” James said. “Through a whole playoff run, I would just turn my phone off completely. I was just doing a lot of reading, a lot of reflection, a lot of meditating on what I wanted to accomplish in my career. It had nothing to do with the naysayers. It was about what I could get out of my career.”
LeBron James talking about how he turns his phone off during the playoff run:
“Who’s going to hold me more accountable than myself as I continue to mention? So, just through a whole playoff run, I would just turn my phone off completely. If my loved ones wanted to get in contact… https://t.co/QpXX34sEdK pic.twitter.com/3tBFlXZ33m
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) March 5, 2026
One can argue against it all they want, but it has evidently worked for LeBron. After all, he has four NBA championships under his belt and aspires to add more before he retires from the game. James has been able to reach this level of success thanks to his full commitment to this method, which requires a lot of sacrifice.
“If my loved ones wanted to get in contact with me, Randy was with me every day. Maverick would be around, you know, a lot of the times. If they want to get in contact with me, they can call them and if it is an emergency, they will come. If we were on the road, they would come knock on my door. Other than that, nobody could get in contact with me for two and a half straight months,” James revealed.
The last time James had a deep postseason run was in 2023, when the Lakers reached the Western Conference Finals before losing to the Denver Nuggets.
Los Angeles currently holds the sixth seed and will have a tough path for a deep playoff run. However, as long as James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are healthy, it’s would be t unwise to completely rule out the possibility.
