Canton
LeBron learns the camera never, ever blinks
Friday, November 10, 2006
By JIM LITKE AP Sports Columnist
Being tabbed the ?next Michael Jordan? is great for as long as it lasts. There?s fat contracts and sneaker deals, commercials by the dozen, an invite inside every velvet rope and endless adulation.
If any or all of those things don?t trip you up, well, there?s always the cameras. Always, as LeBron James should know by now, there will be cameras.
One caught the kid who would be king walking off the floor Tuesday night in Cleveland with about 15 seconds of overtime left in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. James just had missed a 3-point shot, the Cavs already were nine behind, and the Hawks were headed the other way up the floor.
Like more than a few players on more than a few nights, he started toward the tunnel before the final buzzer sounded. All James has heard since ? beyond endless replays of an astonished Hawks? announcer chirping, ?What a great sport he is!? ? is how he let everyone down.
The list starts with his teammates and fans and extends on up to NBA commissioner David Stern, who?s caught in the throes of an etiquette campaign that would make Miss Manners blush.
Please.
?Anytime someone doesn?t have anything to talk about, they?re going to question anything that you do,? James said before tip-off Thursday night at home against the Chicago Bulls. He was still in a defiant mood.
?Say if we were winning the game and I did the same thing that I did when we lost. Would it have been mentioned?? James added without waiting for an answer. ?I don?t think so.?
What he did offends old-school sensibilities, no doubt. We like to tell kids to keep hustling to the end of every game, no matter how bitter. Fine. But it?s another thing to lecture a professional who just finished playing 47 tough minutes in a tough loss, knowing there are 75 more games and who-knows-how-many postseason series left to play.
It?s hardly a reason to take someone whose precociousness ? on and off the court ? has invited comparisons to Jordan, Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson and suddenly demote him to Randy Moss? classroom.
Not that James felt slighted: ?Randy Moss is a guy who has been unfairly treated sometimes ... but he?s one of the best players in the game.?
Unlike Moss, however, James has been a model citizen. His talents have been tempered by humor and a well-developed sense of diplomacy that make it easy to forget he?s still two months shy of his 22nd birthday. James? instincts have carried him this far without so much as a serious hiccup.
He?s big-timed a teammate or two, hasn?t hesitated to let the Cavs front office know his opinions on things, and yes, there are a few opponents out there who resent the ?King James? treatment accorded him at every turn. But he?s handled the spotlight as capably as defenders since his junior year of high school, and that?s without the benefit of even one season on campus, let alone with somebody like Dean Smith in his corner.
Smith?s imprint was all over Jordan, but never moreso than in teaching him what it meant to be a professional. Long after he segued from North Carolina into the NBA, there were plenty of nights on the road when Jordan laid out the suit he?d be wearing the next day for no more than an hour or so then tried it on with different shirts and ties, always making sure the colors coordinated and everything fit just so.
Like the rest of us, Jordan can be vain. But that wasn?t the point of the exercise, at least not entirely.
He reasoned the walk from the hotel to a waiting bus, or from the bus to the locker room, might be the only time somebody stuck on the other side of the gantlet would ever see him up close. If Jordan was about anything back in the day, he was about making sure everybody got their money?s worth, each and every time they laid eyes on him.
That?s a lot to ask from anybody. But maybe not from somebody with enough game, charisma and smarts to wear the ?next Michael Jordan? tag for as long he desires.
LeBron learns the camera never, ever blinks
Friday, November 10, 2006
By JIM LITKE AP Sports Columnist
Being tabbed the ?next Michael Jordan? is great for as long as it lasts. There?s fat contracts and sneaker deals, commercials by the dozen, an invite inside every velvet rope and endless adulation.
If any or all of those things don?t trip you up, well, there?s always the cameras. Always, as LeBron James should know by now, there will be cameras.
One caught the kid who would be king walking off the floor Tuesday night in Cleveland with about 15 seconds of overtime left in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. James just had missed a 3-point shot, the Cavs already were nine behind, and the Hawks were headed the other way up the floor.
Like more than a few players on more than a few nights, he started toward the tunnel before the final buzzer sounded. All James has heard since ? beyond endless replays of an astonished Hawks? announcer chirping, ?What a great sport he is!? ? is how he let everyone down.
The list starts with his teammates and fans and extends on up to NBA commissioner David Stern, who?s caught in the throes of an etiquette campaign that would make Miss Manners blush.
Please.
?Anytime someone doesn?t have anything to talk about, they?re going to question anything that you do,? James said before tip-off Thursday night at home against the Chicago Bulls. He was still in a defiant mood.
?Say if we were winning the game and I did the same thing that I did when we lost. Would it have been mentioned?? James added without waiting for an answer. ?I don?t think so.?
What he did offends old-school sensibilities, no doubt. We like to tell kids to keep hustling to the end of every game, no matter how bitter. Fine. But it?s another thing to lecture a professional who just finished playing 47 tough minutes in a tough loss, knowing there are 75 more games and who-knows-how-many postseason series left to play.
It?s hardly a reason to take someone whose precociousness ? on and off the court ? has invited comparisons to Jordan, Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson and suddenly demote him to Randy Moss? classroom.
Not that James felt slighted: ?Randy Moss is a guy who has been unfairly treated sometimes ... but he?s one of the best players in the game.?
Unlike Moss, however, James has been a model citizen. His talents have been tempered by humor and a well-developed sense of diplomacy that make it easy to forget he?s still two months shy of his 22nd birthday. James? instincts have carried him this far without so much as a serious hiccup.
He?s big-timed a teammate or two, hasn?t hesitated to let the Cavs front office know his opinions on things, and yes, there are a few opponents out there who resent the ?King James? treatment accorded him at every turn. But he?s handled the spotlight as capably as defenders since his junior year of high school, and that?s without the benefit of even one season on campus, let alone with somebody like Dean Smith in his corner.
Smith?s imprint was all over Jordan, but never moreso than in teaching him what it meant to be a professional. Long after he segued from North Carolina into the NBA, there were plenty of nights on the road when Jordan laid out the suit he?d be wearing the next day for no more than an hour or so then tried it on with different shirts and ties, always making sure the colors coordinated and everything fit just so.
Like the rest of us, Jordan can be vain. But that wasn?t the point of the exercise, at least not entirely.
He reasoned the walk from the hotel to a waiting bus, or from the bus to the locker room, might be the only time somebody stuck on the other side of the gantlet would ever see him up close. If Jordan was about anything back in the day, he was about making sure everybody got their money?s worth, each and every time they laid eyes on him.
That?s a lot to ask from anybody. But maybe not from somebody with enough game, charisma and smarts to wear the ?next Michael Jordan? tag for as long he desires.
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