On the Greatness of LeBron James, and Other Notes
Posted March 24th, 2009 by Michael Curry
Catching you up on Cavaliers news over the last few days:
- Lots of LeBron coverage on ESPN.com today. CavsHQ personal hero John Hollinger has a deep statistical analysis of LeBron’s season, indicating that he is having a truly historic year from a statistical perspective. While LeBron’s averages of 28.6 points, 7.3 assists and 7.6 rebounds per game are actually very similar to last seasons numbers of 30.0 points, 7.2 assists and 7.9 rebounds, he is accomplishing those feats in 2.3 fewer minutes per game. At the same time, LeBron’s turnovers are down from 3.4 turnovers per game last year to 3.0 turnovers per game this season.
- Then TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott has an interesting take on the greatness that is LeBron James, essentially explaining that, while LeBron’s game is not as “fundamental” as that of Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade, his greatness actually transcends what we’ve come to expect as great.
Personally, I think it’s the difference between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. For hundreds of years, the acoustic guitar was the standard, and the evolution of great acoustic guitar players eventually gravatated towards the same general standard, a feeling that great acoustic guitar playing “sounds like this.”
Then someone invents the electric guitar. It’s the same six strings, the same setup, but the instrument is so fundamentally different that it actually creates its own image of what greatness sounds like. We get Clapton and Hendrix, and they’re creating sounds that were not possible in the world of the acoustic guitar. And it’s completely different than what we had with acoustic guitars, but it’s still fantastic.
LeBron James is the electric guitar. He is doing things that just were not physically possible before, and as a result he has to cut a new path towards greatness. He is finding new sounds, best exemplified in his chase-down blocks, something that was considered ground-breaking when Tayshaun Prince did it to Reggie Miller in the Playoffs, but is now commonplace for LeBron.
Now there are always going to be people that prefer the classics, just as there are plenty of people that refuse to acknowledge anything created by an electric guitar as music. And there will be growing pains, as LeBron doesn’t have a similarly-talented player to model his game upon. But I think this young man is the first step in the next evolution of the game. If you expect him to fit into the classic notion of the NBA superstar, you might find that he doesn’t quite fit. But if you are a true fan of the genre of basketball, you owe it to yourself to learn to appreciate what he’s doing, because it’s pretty amazing.
- More evidence of Lebron’s groundbreaking specialness: He won his seventh Player of the Week award this week, the first time a player has won the award seven times in one season.
- LeBron + yoga = health. With some really great pictures. One wonders if these kinds of exercises could have extended the careers of bad-backed players such as Larry Bird or former Cav Brad Daugherty. But can you really picture Larry Legend doing the King Pigeon Pose?
- I just want to say how happy I am that Cleveland market has Bill Livingston to suck the fun out of sports. Seriously Bill, we know that you’ve created a career out of pretending sports is bigger than just a great way to kill an evening, but that article was practically a stick-in-the-mud-sportwriter cliche.
- I can’t endorse worrying about “power rankings” during the regular season, as we’ll find out who the best team is at the end of the season. But that being said, I completely disagree with Marc Stein putting the Lakers ahead of the Cavaliers after last week. John Hollinger has it right, as does John Schuhmann of NBA.com. Hollinger’s Playoff Odds also have the Cavs with the highest likelihood of winning the title.
- Gilbert Arenas is coming back, and plans on making the game in Cleveland on April 8th his sole road game of the season. According to Ivan Carter of the Washington Post, Arenas texted the following: ”Ur the first to get the truth. I’m playing Saturday against Detroit. And I’m only playin home games but I will play in Cleveland. Me and Cleveland fans have this love, hate relation.” So true, Agent Zero. So true.
More tomorrow on the Nets. Stay Thirsty Cavs fans.
