It might be considered heresy in the basketball world, but I'll say it: something's up with LeBron James.
The whispers are there if you poke around the Internet. They say he's regressed as a player this season and he's more concerned with transcending the game of basketball than he is with mastering it. And if the Cavaliers flame out in the first round of the playoffs this season, you can expect the murmurs to gain a whole lot of volume.
Don't get me wrong - James is one of the best players in the NBA and is probably the most talented. His numbers and achievements back up that statement: Rookie of the Year, an All-NBA selection two-straight years, and second in MVP voting last year, while averaging over 31 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 6.6 assists a contest.
But a quick look at his statistics this season tells a different story - he's taken a step back. James' points, rebounds, assists and steals are down. His turnovers are up. James is shooting more jumpers, so his free throw attempts and field goal percentage have both dropped, and he's missing shots from the charity stripe at a significantly higher rate than at any other point in his career.
The numbers don't fully describe LBJ's falloff from last season, either. Check out one of the many nationally-televised Cavaliers games and see what you think of the effort the "King" is putting forth. This season, in the games that I've seen, he turned it on for spurts but never played hard for 40 minutes. I don't see Kobe or Dirk or Steve Nash taking plays off, let alone entire quarters like I've seen from LeBron. There's a surprising amount of anti-James sentiment on a couple of different Cavaliers fan forums, and much of it centers on his lack of night-in, night-out desire.
It's incredibly frustrating to watch James play. He's almost always the best and always the most freakishly talented player on the court, but he doesn't take advantage of his profligate abilities. The Cavaliers are one of the ugliest offensive teams in the league, and a fair amount of that is LeBron's fault. He's almost Iverson-esque in his preference to dribble out the shot clock before settling for a jumper, and his decision-making on the perimeter comes too slowly. He often holds the ball for a couple of seconds before passing, dribbling, or shooting, giving the defense time to double-team him or rotate back into position. And he never makes cuts to the basket without the ball: When he comes off of screens, he virtually always flare-cuts to the perimeter rather than curling to the paint.
I called my little brother after I saw James mail in a game last November and told him that that LeBron would never be better than Jordan. It might be too early in the former's career to make that judgment, but I stand by it. Right now, James does not have the killer instinct that MJ had or that Kobe and Dwyane Wade currently possess. The latter three don't just want to beat their man; they want to destroy him at both ends of the court. LeBron doesn't have that.
Jordan's competitiveness was legendary. One time, after getting off the team plane, MJ bet a few of the Bulls' youngsters 100 bucks each that his bags would be the first ones on the carousel, and if any other player's luggage appeared first, Jordan lost the bet. Figuring that MJ only had a one-in-fifteen chance and knowing his profligate gambling habits, all eagerly accepted. So the story goes, Jordan cracked up while he collected his winnings. The rookies hadn't known that, like he did every time he suggested the "bet," Jordan had slipped the baggage handler a 20 to make certain that his luggage would be the first on the belt.
He didn't do it for the money! It's Michael freaking Jordan we're talking about - he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I love that story because it sums up Jordan's playing career: He lived to outsmart his opponents, to embarrass them, to remind them that they simply would not best him.
When ESPN The Magazine was interviewing LeBron a couple of weeks ago, it asked him what his goals were, and he responded, "Two words: global icon." Basketball has only had one of those, and his name is Michael Jordan. If James wants to follow in his footsteps, he would be wise to remember that Jordan was a winner first.
Matthew Mertens is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Matthew.Mertens@tufts.edu
