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LeBron James

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Weight loss wouldn't take away from his explosion. If anything, it'd make him more explosive. It's not like LB is a toothpick, he's still a beast, and still too powerful for many to handle.

I don't think I've ever seen LB go on a fast break, virtually uncontested, and not dunk the ball.

His back might be hurting him more than he's letting on.

It's also just possible, that he's starting to lose a step, but that seems doubtful.
 
How LeBron is wielding an influence never before seen in the NBA
By Adrian Wojnarowski

CLEVELAND – In the uneasy moments lurching toward tipoff, the neatly manicured mythology ofLeBron James’ homecoming flickered on the spectacular screen suspended over the Q Arena floor. All around, the shoe company’s commercial played out with thousands upon thousands of Clevelanders surrounding the prodigal son in the Cavaliers’ huddle, thousands more reaching out, across blocks and streets, responding to the superstar’s declarations of duty about winning a championship for them.

No one does fairy tales like Nike, an unapologetic peddling of product for a summer transaction. The most conditional kind of love washed down onto James upon his Cavaliers return on Thursday night, Northeast Ohio determined to distill romance out of something that was far more a free-agent power play than the storybook journey home that it’s been framed.

For James’ genius standards, this was a flat, flawed debut, an abysmal performance born of nerves and newness. The Cavaliers lost to the New York Knicks, and James had never looked so pressed and uneasy. From eight turnovers to missing eight of nine shots to start, even the sprawling hype of this night overwhelmed a four-time MVP and two-time champion. This is a new pressure, and for a night anyway, it was palpable.

“This was great, but I’m glad it’s over,” James said.

Yes, James loves this region, but give him this too: The world’s best basketball player is testing the reach of the iconic athlete into athletic and coaching representation, pursuing power and control that no active athlete’s ever dared.

His childhood friend-turned agent, Rich Paul, oversees Klutch Sports, a Cleveland-based agency that exists out of the generosity of its financial benefactor, LeBron James. These are James’ resources and might behind the company, but he lets his buddies run it. Klutch represents Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson, who has a decided advantage as a James underling to negotiate a better-than-market value deal with the Cavaliers.

Most agents and business associates of key Cavaliers players are on full alert to keep clients out of the tentacles of Klutch. The Klutch sales pitch has been predictable: Come with us, get paid with the Cavaliers.

As much as anything, James has set up Rich Paul with a sweet gig: Paul doesn’t negotiate the contracts for clients, nor does he do the marketing for LeBron James. Those jobs belong to Mark Termini and the Fenway Sports Group, respectively. Nevertheless, Paul is the personable frontman, the secondary recruiter behind James himself.

As the season unfolds, the Klutch Sports client most are watching closest is deposed Golden State coach Mark Jackson. He has bounced agent to agent in his brief coaching career, but landing with Paul raised the suspicions of Jackson’s motives: Does Jackson think Paul can simply wedge him into the Cavaliers’ job?

Most believe that James is too smart to ever want a coach who spends far more time retweeting Twitter praise for himself than preparing his basketball team, but Jackson shouldn’t be underestimated as one of the sport’s great self-promoters. And make no mistake: If the Cavaliers struggle, it won’t be James and Kevin Love taking the blame. It’ll be coach David Blatt, who understands – even embraces – the burden.

After the loss on Thursday, Blatt was disappointed but hardly discouraged on the walk back to his office. “I’ve been preaching patience on this team all along, but I understand that it can be hard for people to accept it,” Blatt told Yahoo Sports. “Anyway, we can play a hell of a lot better than that.” Asked if this kind of opening-night loss amid the anticipation had felt like a kick in the stomach, he said, “It was for me, for everybody – and that could be a good thing for all of us.”

Even so, Blatt stopped and smiled. All these stops in the world, Princeton to Israel to Russia, and this was the kind of night, on the kind of stage, that he had forever dreamed: “It was special,” Blatt told Yahoo. “Just incredibly special …”

When James and the Miami Heat were barely over .500 to start his Heat career, he tried to take on Erik Spoelstra – only to have management support the coach. The Cavaliers could be 0-2 by late Friday in Chicago – and still be on the way to 60 victories and a ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals. Blatt is nothing if not supremely confident, prepared and convinced he’ll find a way to get the best out of everyone on his basketball team.

In the end, James will make the ultimate call in Cleveland, but remember something: He doesn’t have the leverage with a one-year contract that people want to believe. He committed to a short contract so he could cash into that new television booty, but whatever is threatened for the sake of leverage – directly or indirectly – James can’t leave Cleveland again. His image, his brand, couldn’t survive the fallout. Once James returned, make no mistake: he signed a lifetime contract with the Cavaliers. This time, it’s in blood.

Only one thing had changed from when James had left the Cavaliers four years ago: This time, he had two championships. Once you’ve won, everything is easily explained away. His free-agent performance this summer wasn’t so much different than 2010, only seen through a new prism. James empowered Paul to drag several teams to Klutch’s offices in Cleveland for free-agent presentations without the free-agent star present. Once those meetings were over, leaked to the public, the teams sheepishly realized: We were had.

“Just used as props to get attention and publicize their business,” one league executive told Yahoo Sports. “Maybe that’s smart to some people, but you have to deal with the same people again and again in this league. Those things can come back on you eventually.”

It won’t be soon, because LeBron James is running Cleveland again, running the NBA. Everyone still wants this LeBron James story to read like a fairy tale, but it’s something else, something different. This is business, and for now, business is good.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-le...e-never-before-seen-in-the-nba-165754734.html
 
IT's the blown layups that concern me more than anything else. Layups always go in for Lebron and he has missed a ton of gimmes including the preseason and last night. He is not looking like the best player on the floor at all right now.
 
IT's the blown layups that concern me more than anything else. Layups always go in for Lebron and he has missed a ton of gimmes including the preseason and last night. He is not looking like the best player on the floor at all right now.

Its one game. He was way over emotional for the occasion, which made the game secondary.

Its over, now they can start to learn to play together.
 
Inb4 Lebron drops 25 tonight and all is right in the world again.
 
The reason he's missing those layups is because he doesn't plan on playing closer to the post area yet. Sometimes he tries too hard to finish at the rim. He's still trying to adjust playing without the ball and believe me, he'll struggle to put up big scoring numbers that way. It's like he's more comfortable settling for outside shots, but he knows in order to play efficiently, he'll have to be more aggressive and attacking the basket more.
 
It looks like a mental thing to me. He just isn't engaged yet for whatever reason. I think last night took a lot of pressure off. Things are gonna be alright LeBron. Just play your game. Don't worry about setting the table, it will happen. Kyrie and Dion were the only guys who truly looked comfortable to me, and that is understandable.
 
Yeah, it's Stephen A. Smith but still...He observed that James looked "tiered in warumps" and "didn't seem to be himself". So who knows? It may very well be possible that health wise, he isn't feeling comfortable at all right now. I hope he'll be fine.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIXgrTEdYOA
 
James did not look "tired in warmups" :9:. If anything he was overhyped, bouncing around, not knowing what to do with his energy. Where does this shit come from?

Some of this stuff is going to look really stupid in short order.
 
It looks like a mental thing to me. He just isn't engaged yet for whatever reason. I think last night took a lot of pressure off. Things are gonna be alright LeBron. Just play your game. Don't worry about setting the table, it will happen. Kyrie and Dion were the only guys who truly looked comfortable to me, and that is understandable.

Love looked perfectly comfortable in the early going and then, for whatever reason, he sort of disappeared from the offense.

LeBron was obviously pressing but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a voice in the back of my head telling me that this is going to be a rough start to the season. Plus the back issues concern me.

Of course, all the concerns go away with a victory tonight.
 
Love looked perfectly comfortable in the early going and then, for whatever reason, he sort of disappeared from the offense.

LeBron was obviously pressing but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a voice in the back of my head telling me that this is going to be a rough start to the season. Plus the back issues concern me.

Of course, all the concerns go away with a victory tonight.

I'd be surprised if he has any back issues given the force and fluency with which he touched his palms to the court just before the game started. But he did look downright clumsy several times. In fact, I don't think he's looked up to par physically since the beginning of the preseason games.
 
Lebron was awful, Like really awful. I expect a better performance from him tonight.
 
Lebron was awful, Like really awful. I expect a better performance from him tonight.

That's a leap of faith lol

How could he be worse

Currently has a PER of 1.8 and the team has offensive rating of 75 pts / 100 possessions with him on it lol
 
Yeah, it's Stephen A. Smith but still...He observed that James looked "tiered in warumps" and "didn't seem to be himself". So who knows? It may very well be possible that health wise, he isn't feeling comfortable at all right now. I hope he'll be fine.

Please, for the love of God, never post a video with Skip Bayless on this site again.
 
I actually agree with some of what Skip said. The self-aggrandizing party atmosphere that he ditched when he went to Miami needs to stay ditched. Pointing to your biceps and flexing and shit after a good play 5 minutes into the game is just hilarious. I guess you could argue it's harmless, too, but when you go out and play the way he did after that, people will bring it up.

The Stephen A shit about LBJ looking "spent" is just dumb though. No idea what he's talking about.
 

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