Hendricks talks about his mental game after accepting Jimmy V award

LOS ANGELES - White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks told the ESPY audience Wednesday night that he pitched much of the 2022 season with non-Hodgkin lymphoma before being diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease.

He accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. The 34-year-old Australian was declared cancer-free in late April and returned to the mound a month later.

"That was an eye-opener. I didn't feel too many symptoms but I had some lumps around. It just shows you the power of the mind. When you don't think anything's wrong and you believe that you can do anything, you can do anything," Hendriks said.

"I was throwing 100 miles per hour while going through Stage 4 lymphoma and then coming back after doing eight rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of immunotherapy and was able to get out there and throw 96 miles per hour. That isn't physically who I am. That's all this, that's all mental."

We also learned Wednesday that LeBron James will play another season for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 38-year-old superstar announced his intentions at The ESPYs after accepting the record-breaking performance award for becoming the NBA's career scoring leader.

At the end of last season, in which he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's mark, James had said he wasn't sure if he would be back.

"In that moment I'm asking myself if I can still play without cheating the game. Can I give everything to the game still? The truth is I've been asking myself this question at the end of the season for a couple years now. I just never openly talked about it," James said.

He was presented his trophy by wife Savannah, sons Bronny and Bryce and daughter Zhuri.

Patrick Mahomes was honored as best men's sports athlete, while skier Mikaela Shiffrin received the women's sports honor.

The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has won two Super Bowls in his five seasons and was named MVP of the game each time, including this past February. He turns 28 in September.