Old but interesting Lebron article

[Heej]

This article is about 2 years old but I had never seen it before until yesterday. It's an article discussing the vaunted killer instinct we all, at some point or another, wish Lebron possessed. The story about MJ and Lebron is particularly interesting. Here's the article by Chris Broussard:

DON'T LET THE SMILE FOOL YOU
King James is out to Prove Nice Guys Finish First
by Chris Broussard

They say you've got to be like Mike (or maybe Kobe). That you absolutely must despise your foe. That you must hear harmless pre-game banter as "How dare he!" insults and treat the man on the other side of the ball as if he had trashed your mama, dissed you on a mix tape or hit on your girl. That you must do whatever it takes to work up 48 minutes of propulsive hatred. Don't smile. Don't chat. And when circumstance warrants, don't consider your teammates. Get the ball, no matter what. Take the shot, no matter how. Tell those role players and they're all role players to get out of the way. The need to be The Man has to be insatiable. For the great ones, it's not about winning. It's about embarrassing. Annihilating. Taking another mans heart. "You gotta be a muthaf'er to win a championship," says one executive. And then there's LeBron James.

The greatest 21-year-old in NBA history, give or take a Magic Johnson, sits in the Cavaliers newly renovated team room on the eve of training camp. He's a few months removed from one of the best seasons in recent memory, a 31 ppg, 7 rpg, 6 apg explosion that put him alongside only MJ, the Big O and Jerry West. And yet all anyone is interested in is what he has inside. It started last December, when King James told The Mag, "I don't think I have an instinct like Kobe, where I just want to kill everybody." Suddenly, analysts were wondering out loud if LeBron had a glaring weakness, ignoring that he also said, "But I do want to be the best player on the court every time I step out there."

Weeks later, after he passed off to teammates in a few last-second situations, critics went for the jugular: LeBron was afraid to take the big shot. He quickly muzzled them for a while with some game-winners, including two in a tense first-round series with the Wizards. But questions about whether he is a killer won't die. And he's not going out of his way to bury them. "At that time last year, I didn't feel like I had it," LeBron freely admits. "That's not to say I wasn't competing as hard as I could. But you could see a difference between Kobe Bryant's game and mine. I'm still learning. I'll be a totally different player this year." So is this the season when we get to see the assassin? "I'm getting there," he says with a big smile. "I'm getting there." Skeptics will hear that as proof that something is still lacking. But to one charter member of the games killer elite, "it's all part of the journey." "He'll get it," Larry Bird says. "It comes with the job and with all the pressure on him. He's only been in the league three years. He needs to go further and further in the playoffs. That's when you develop it."

Well, it's a theory. But then you look at Michael Jordan. He hit the shot that won an NCAA title as a freshman, just three years after he was told he wasn't good enough for his high school team. He didn't have time to develop a steel will. He just had it. So maybe if LeBron doesn't have it now, he never will. And maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe the question we should be asking is: Does he even need it? LeBron is in the unique position of being able to put the lie to the killer-instinct charade. He is a singular talent, a player with an almost unimaginable combination of size, speed, strength and skill. Who's to say he cant prevail without alienating teammates or obsessing about total domination? "People say, Well, if he ever gets that killer in him," says Randy Mims, a Cavaliers official and one of LeBron's closest friends. "But not all killers kill alone. That's why you have tribes."

A fidgety Daniel Gibson waits in line to have his photo taken for the team guide on media day. The second-rounder is the teams 15th man in other words, the least prominent member of the tribe. Yet here he is, being tended to by The King. As LeBron walks by, he notices that the newcomer doesn't quite have it together. "Yo, you cant be taking pictures with lint in your hair," he says. He removes the dust from Gibson's waves as the wide-eyed rook wears a grin the size of a three-point arc. The brief encounter tells a story: LeBron wants to make all his teammates look good. "He has a unique attitude for a superstar," says former 15-year vet Scott Williams, a Cavaliers broadcaster who played with LeBron and MJ. "So many superstars I played with cared only about themselves. He develops a rapport with his teammates."

When The King was 11, his AAU coach, Dru Joyce II, would drive him and Dru III home from practice. LeBron sat in the back on the passengers side, wishing Coach would play Tupac or Biggie instead of that old-school R&B. Occasionally, he'd meditate on the handwritten Post-it stuck to the dashboard: "Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful." John Wooden. One particular day, there was neither music nor meditation. Joyce was disturbed by how his team had won its last tournament: too much one-on-one, not enough one-for-all. As he drove down Akron's East Avenue, he peered over the seat and into the eyes of his star. "The best way to win," he said, "was to share the ball, to get your points in the flow. Do that, and everyone will be happy and want to play with you." "I never had to say another word about that," says Joyce, who coached James in high school, too. He saw the results.

Anyone who knows LeBron even a little knows he is a people person times 10. "If gregariousness were a stat, he'd be among the league leaders. The consummate extrovert," says Lance Blanks, a Cavaliers assistant GM. LeBron doesn't have a self-conscious bone in his body. Throw on Jim Jones "We Fly High" and see him start groovin'. Stay after practice and watch as he turns a high-priced game of P-I-G into Must See TV. In one contest against then-teammate Luke Jackson, each player shooting with his off hand, James was down to his last miss. A 22-footer from the left wing caused him to sigh and bystanders to count him out. Then LeBron launched a lefty J and celebrated loudly as it fell through the net. "They call me Big Shot James!" he screamed, flexing and frowning as if to scold his doubters.

LeBron is also the anti-loner. Be it his inner circle (business partners Maverick Carter, Rich Paul and Mims), former high school mates or some current Cavaliers, he is always surrounded by a crew. "I'm an outgoing person," he says. "I like to share the comedy and what I do every day. I'd go crazy if I was by myself." This is why James shares the wealth when he's on the court. "He wants to be the main course," says Romeo Travis, a childhood buddy, "but he wants everybody on the plate with him." But mistake the soft heart for softness at your own peril. Stories abound about LeBron going killer after a teammate has talked trash in practice. One time in high school, he scored every basket in a scrimmage off glass three-pointers, and turnarounds included, after a teammate got mouthy.

Since he's been with the Cavaliers, he's been known to score every point when the scout team gets uppity. Then there's the Jordan story. There are various versions, but everyone agrees it took place in 2001, the summer before LeBron's junior year. He was 16 and just beginning to blow up nationally. MJ was preparing for his second comeback with high-powered games at Hoops, the gym in Chicago, and Charles Oakley, Ron Artest, Jerry Stackhouse, Antoine Walker and Michael Finley were among those in the house. When Walker invited LeBron, he jumped at the chance to meet his hero, No. 23. The prep star announced himself immediately. Travis, back in Akron, began to field calls from the few flabbergasted friends who were in the gym as the youngster scored at will against Stackhouse. Jordan, at his ultra-competitive peak, began to call out moves before executing them: "I'm gonna go left, stop right there and hit the jumper." Swish. To everyone's astonishment, the precocious teen did the same at the other end: "I'm gonna go left, stop right there and hit the jumper." Swish. "He knew all of Jordan's moves," says Mark Stevens, Artest's agent and an eyewitness to the moment. "Any move Jordan did, LeBron would do." It happened three times, back-to-back-to-back. Word is, LeBron mimicked the famous switch-hands-in-midair finger roll Jordan put on the Lakers in his first Finals, MJ's patented fadeaway and his jumper off a hesitation move. Stevens says Jordan took it in stride, laughing it off by saying, "I see you watch a lot of my films."

Others say they aren't so sure MJ thought imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. "I tried to do his moves," LeBron says now with some real modesty. "I wasn't as impressive as they say. Stories get messed up as years go on." But its one thing for a 16-year-old to mimic Jordan's moves on the playground and quite another to do it when The Man is on the floor with you. "That showed guts," Travis says. Guts. Courage. LeBron calls it the lion in him. It's no coincidence that a lion's head adorns his signature Nikes. Ever since The King was a kid he thinks it may be because a picture of a lion so often accompanied the letter L when he was learning the alphabet he's been captivated by the king of the jungle. "I was always fascinated by the fact that the lion was so powerful, he could just take over." Sound familiar?

Still, LeBron knows he's not the only beast on the savanna. There's always more work to be done. Bump into him almost anywhere and he'll be carrying a laptop and a case of DVDs of his games. In free moments, he pops in a disc to critique. In late September, LeBron's driver navigates the 2006 Maybach that takes the old gang to Ohio State for the annual Icebreaker. King James sits in the backseat during the 90-minute trip, watching the Cavaliers edge Toronto last March. He had 35 points, six rebounds, six assists, and no turnovers, and fed Damon Jones for a game-winning three. But all his boys hear is, "Ohhh, my bad," or "Okay, that's how I can make that play," or "See where I messed up." There's more than one way to skin a big cat. "A lot of people think that killer instinct is taking it to the hoop every time," Mims says. "But for LeBron, it's knowing the game inside and out, knowing the perfect time to get the ball to his teammates, always knowing the best option to take." This is the birth of a new kind of killer, one who doesn't want to embarrass opponents-one who just wants to beat them. Every last one of them.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3246683

If this is old and everyone has read this article already then feel free to lock this thread. I felt like posting it because I found it rather interesting. Btw, it was written on February 14th, 2008.