Root for the Villain

John Sedlar

Love or hate him, Lebron James is here to stay – Photo by Victor Baldizon

By Martin Harasimowicz

“So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat”

A simple note on a sheet of paper right on the front of his locker says it all. After the most turbulent year of his life, and by far the most challenging one, where he went all the way from being NBA ultimate hero to the NBA’s favorite villain in eyes of many fans not just in Cleveland, but league wide, LeBron James wants to live in peace and focus on basketball. He had to get thicker skin and learn how not to be bothered by the negativity surrounding him almost every arena he goes with his “Heatles.” Whether the Big Three will really turn into basketball version of the legendary rock band, the Beatles, is still debatable, but LeBron is ready for the challenge.

 

After “taking his talents to the South Beach” James has proven once again that he’s, at the moment, arguably the best basketball player in the world. After slow start he helped the Miami Heat to become the scariest team in the NBA, which managed to win nineteen out of twenty games during a five-week span in December and January, which raised (once again) the discussion about the Heat being the favorite in the championship race. When I asked him about that, his face didn’t show the slightest bit of emotion, but his eyes shined. “We don’t even try to compare ourselves to the rest of the NBA. What we need to do is to get better every day. We let everybody else to compare us to the rest of the league. We just go out and play Miami Heat basketball. Right now, that’s what we were doing and that resulted in wins. But we understand we got to continue to get better. Not to take a day off from practice, shoot around, or games, ‘cause we know that in this league you never know when the table is turning and you may be on the other side. The great thing about our situation is that we’ve been on the other side already. So we gonna stay humble and continue to move forward.”

 

In addition to Pat Riley, it was primarily Dwyane Wade who pursued LeBron and Chris Bosh to join him in Miami. Their friendship began on draft day in 2003, and they stayed close for years. Nobody believed, however, that these three superstars would manage to land on the same team in the NBA. Last summer they realized their long dream and formed one of the most explosive (and expensive) trios in history of the game with Bosh in the middle, and Wade and James feeding of each other, slashing and on the perimeter. Toward the end of 2010, they finally found their rhythm and became almost impossible to stop. “The games we’ve played, multiple games – it definitely helped. The practices, watching films together has helped as well. We are just figuring out, what need to be done for us to help this team to win, either with both of us on the court together or with one of us sitting down,” says LeBron, for whom D-Wade is as much a friend as a teammate. “You can’t really separate one from another. It always helps. Time helps. We’ve always done things off the court, even where we weren’t on the same team. So it’s not something that was new for us. But we knew we’re gonna be together for a long time, so that helps. It’s nothing that I’ve learned about Dwyane in the recent months. It’s everything that I’ve always thought about him…how competitive he is, how driven and how great teammate he is as well. That goes both on and off the court, and now I’m here with him here every day. It’s definitely like icing on cake.”

 

Since forming the Big Three, the Miami Heat became the most hated team in the league and it shows on the road. LeBron and D-Wade don’t get caught in the negative vibes though – they feed of them. “We’ve always, for the most part, have been in front of hostile crowds on the road. For myself, early in my career I went through that experience in play-offs series against Washington. It was great to watch the series we had. Later on against Detroit…we all knew how hostile [the] environment was. Last few years, the same with Boston…so we thrived, me and D-Wade, on those moments and we just tried to lead our team to victory,” says LeBron, also pointing out at that coach Erik Spoelstra was also highly responsible for team’s turnaround in the recent weeks. “Spo has been great. The one thing he did, when we were struggling in November, he just weathered the storm. He gave us [the] understanding [that] it’s gonna take a lot of dedication and commitment to get all those things right. We weren’t playing great basketball, but he always just kept our heads up and stayed on the same course. We respected that. At that point we just tried to get back to him by going out and playing better.”

 

LeBron understands that after winning two consecutive MVP awards in the past two seasons “it probably won’t happen this year.” He repeats like mantra that “it’s now all about team effort and everybody needs to make sacrifices.” He’s got different goals in mind, besides winning championships of course. How about being Defensive Player of the Year? “My mind has been into it,” James laughs and continues, “But it’s a lot of things that come with it. I’m out on the perimeter a lot. You see a lot of guys with huge rebound games, block games… [but] you don’t see too many guards, even if there are a few, like Ron Artest. I believe Michael Jordan was once a Defensive Player of the Year, so I don’t know. Although I’m getting better, I think in the last three to four years I’ve been a pretty good defender. I’m taking more pride on the defensive end. I give a lot of credit to Mike Brown, to Mike Malone and our coaching staff that we had in Cleveland. They came up with a defensive system and then I just picked [it] up and wanted to be the best defender on our team. I always take the challenge just as much as I do on the offensive end. In the last few years I’ve definitely have taken a lot of pride – I just try to guard my man who is front of me, not allow him to get any space. I’m trying to be help side defender at the same time.”

 

Although he’s becoming more defensive minded, don’t think for a moment he’s forgetting about scoring. When I asked him, “Do you think that you and Dwayne are un-guardable at the moment?” He doesn’t hesitate. The answer comes as fast as a bullet, “I always feel like I’m un-guardable, especially if you guard me with one guy. But these times we just need to pick our spots, be aggressive, do as best for our team and individually.”

 

Love him or hate him, you must admire LeBron James not just as a superstar or tremendous athlete, but as somebody who tries extremely hard to be a winner – that’s all he cares about. When asked about his plans for 2011, he doesn’t have to pause to think about it. “Just to continue to get better and be in winning situation. We all have great ambition here in Miami, some plans we want to fulfill.”

 

So far he has brought his talents to South Beach, and the championship parades might follow very soon.

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