Thoughts on LeBron

With game 2 rapidly approaching, there is talk all over the place about LeBron James’ performance on the last play of game 1. Driving to the hole, Bron Bron kicked it out to a wide open Donyell Marshall for the game winning three. Of course, being a former Chicago Horri-Bull, Marshall clanked the three and now LeBron is taking tons of heat for his crunch-time decisions.

If you’ll remember, this same time last year, LeBron was being questioned left and right about how he’d never hit a game-winning shot and his peculiar habit of chewing his fingernails during a close game. However, James seemingly answered all those questions during last year’s playoffs when he owned the Wizards and almost pulled off an upset of the Detroit Pistons.

That was LeBron at his best, but now TrueHoop has addressed the problem that everyone is having, why’d LeBron pass? Henry proposes that it’s not so much a matter of LeBron being meek, but rather that James, being only 22, is just trying to find himself as a player. I find a lot of credibility in this line of thinking and am also reminded that when he was coming in to the league, the thing that people raved about was LeBron’s court vision and passing ability. Though he chose to wear 23, most envisioned him as the second coming of Magic Johnson (which begs the question, why doesn’t LeBron run point?). Unfortunately for him, any and all lead guards will be measured against Jordan’s success.

I find it hard to reconcile the fact that if Marshall had hit that shot, we’d be praising LeBron for making such a good pass; but if he’d missed the shot, people would be complaining that he didn’t hit Donyell in the corner. It’s impossible to expect LeBron (or anyone) to compare to Michael Jordan, but I think LeBron can become his own kind of crunch-time killer. Last year’s playoffs showed that he has the ability to finish games, but right now he just needs to figure out the best way.