LeBron James decided to take his talents to Hollywood in the offseason, joining the Los Angeles Lakers after four straight trips to the Finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The King signed a four-year, $153.3 million contract with the Lakers, but according to his agent and long-time friend, Rich Paul, his decision wasn't based on money alone.

Paul, who grew up with James in the Cleveland area, recently joined Sam Amick of The Athletic for a wide-ranging discussion. Amid the interview, Paul noted that James' decision to join the Lakers was heavily-influenced by the opportunity of building a new culture in Tinseltown.

“I think it was important to LeBron that the Lakers are really just starting to build a new culture from the ground up and he could have a lot of influence on the new direction,” Paul said during his interview The Athletic. “As he has said, there are a lot of reasons he joined the Lakers, including family and a number of basketball specific reasons, but team culture is as important to LeBron as talent. And he knew (that) Jeanie, Magic and Rob were just beginning a new era.”

If first impressions are an indicator of what's to come for the Lakers, their first few exhibition games of this season are certainly a good sign.

James only played in the first half of Wednesday night's 123-113 win over the Golden State Warriors, but that didn't stop him from posting a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, and one steal in 15 minutes of action).

“Why do you think this was your best preseason game of the season this far as a team?” a reporter asked James after Wednesday night's match-up.

“Because it was our next game,” James said with conviction. “We've been practicing very well, and we wanna continue to implement what we've been doing in practice to a game situation, and I think we did that tonight.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH9E5OEcLcI

James and the Lakers will be back in action on Friday night, when they'll face the Warriors once again. Tip-off inside San Jose's SAP Center is set for 10:30 p.m. EST with ESPN2 having live broadcast coverage.