May 6, 2006
Sports of The Times
In the N.B.A.'s Glare, a Star Adds Luster
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
WASHINGTON

WE'VE seen a number of dimensions in LeBron James's game in three seasons. We've seen clutch 3-point shooting, strong slicing drives, timely winning plays. But last night James revealed a hidden part of his game: gamesmanship. Last night he became a shrink.

After Washington's Gilbert Arenas missed his first free throw with the Wizards leading by 113-112 in overtime with 15 seconds left to play, James walked over to foul line and spoke to Arenas.

"I said 'Gilbert, if you miss both those free throws the game is over,' " James said.

Arenas missed his second shot, and on Cleveland's next possession Damon Jones hit a jump shot that sent Cleveland to its first playoff series victory in 13 years.

If there was one element of James's arsenal that lagged behind Michael Jordan's, it was gamesmanship. He took a major step last night toward closing that gap.

Earlier in the game Brendan Haywood floored James with a hard foul that forced the Cavaliers to call a time out. James said he wasn't really hurt.

"I just wanted to make them think I was affected by it," he said. "I wasn't affected."

James was hurt, but he came back. His line last night — 32 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds — was average, for him, but the constant pressure he applies wore on the Wizards.

"He's a strong kid," Arenas said. "We tried to pressure him, get him tired, he'd just go past you. Once he gets an angle on you, he's got that 245-pound body coming in there. He's a very talented kid. At 21, no wonder why they call him King James."

What impresses me about James is that he seems to have maintained a grip on reality. In a SportsCenter-dominated culture, James has been able to maintain perspective.

As a society, we pay lip service to the virtues of teamwork and team play, but at the end of the day, we love our stars. We expect, indeed, look forward to, the emergence of a generational star.

Now we have two: James and Kobe Bryant.

Bryant turns in amazing performances in the West while James, with sheer force of will and physical presence, dominates in the East.

I often wonder how a 21-year-old celebrity separates reality from the truth. Who among LeBron's entourage reminds him that he's really not a king or a duke or an earl? Who reminds him he's just a human being with enormous talent and flaws?

In this respect, James is fortunate that his first two N.B.A. coaches have been solid counterweights to the league's star-driven culture.

Paul Silas, James's first coach, was the proverbial tough-guy enforcer of the N.B.A., so tough that no one, not even a superstar rookie franchise player, would think of pushing him around.

Mike Brown is James's second full-time coach. Brown, who was never an N.B.A. player, has emerged from the shadows of a long, meandering coaching career. Last night, he made a key substitution putting Jones, who had not played at all, into the game at the end of overtime.

Brown's steady but modest career path has given him a down-to-earth approach to N.B.A. players, including the superstars.

"The biggest thing is you have to be honest with these guys," Brown said. "You got to treat these guys like human beings; you don't discipline N.B.A. players, you discipline your children.""

He added: "The power of the truth is something that people can't mess with. Even if they don't like to hear what you have to tell them, they'll respect you because you're open, you're out front, you're honest and they have an understanding of where you're coming from."

Last June, the Cavaliers hired Brown, a face that few outside the N.B.A. recognized. Brown began his coaching career in 1992. He had been an assistant under Rick Carlisle, Gregg Popovich and Bernie Bickerstaff.

"When I was with all those guys, they taught me a thing or two," Brown said. "Not just how to survive in the league but how to deal with certain personalities in the league."

Those personalities were diverse: Tim Duncan, Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Webber.

"All that has helped me be able to coach a guy like LeBron James, because I've been around guys that are close to being superstars or are superstars or great players," Brown said.

The key to success is to give players like James and Bryant doses of what they rarely get: truth.

"I told LeBron when I first met him: 'We're going to have our ups and downs, they're going to be times when you're coming at me hard and I'm coming at you hard, there might be disrespect, but at the end of the day, we know that that happens in the heat of the battle," Brown said.

Bryant and James will probably be Olympic teammates in 2008. If the N.B.A. is as much like professional wrestling as I think it is, the league will find a way to manipulate a Kobe-LeBron finals matchup within the next two seasons.

They are, potentially, this generation's Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

uhhh, how?


Lebron is 21.

Kobe's 26.


Bird and Magic were the same age...

Dumb article but lots of free publicity for the league.

The whole conspiricy thing is always long overblown.

I thought Arenas should have knocked out Lebrons teeth talking to him at the line.