It’s easy to forget with all the political and economic drama the NBA is involved in since the infamous Daryl Morey tweet about the Hong Kong protests and China’s reaction to it all, that the league is actually about to start very soon.

There are preseason games going on. Rookies getting their first real tastes of NBA games. Everyone is gearing up for October 22 and in fact, the schedule of preseason games has only two nights worth of matchups left.

LeBron James, whether he wanted too or not, thrust himself into the epicenter of the whole NBA-Hong Kong-China triangle, got a reaction he didn’t expect, tried to backtrack and got pummeled by fans and media again, and is now trying to focus on basketball again.

And when it comes to basketball, he’s awesome.

The Lakers picked up their third win of the preseason, beating the Golden State Warriors 126-93. The Dubs didn’t play Stephen Curry. Both James and Anthony Davis (although it wasn’t a full-strength roster) showed up for the Lakers. AD wasn’t having a good game. James? 18 points, 4 rebounds and 11 assists, the best of them being an amazing over the shoulder, no-look dish to Danny Green for the 3.

The China affair isn’t over, and it’s probably going to hurt the NBA in terms of money. It’ll hurt James as well in more ways than just money, as his ability to let his messages about whatever he wants to talk about took a big hit from a legitimacy stand point. But when it comes to basketball, he’ll be doing just fine.