23 ways of looking at LeBron James
1. ATLANTA – LeBron James shows up for work Friday night wearing a backwards baseball cap. He is quite possibly the first person to pull off the backwards-cap look since its early ‘90s heyday of Ken Griffey Jr. and Axl Rose. We lead with this fashion choice because on this night, LeBron James will do many things very well. Tonight, LeBron will be better at his job than you and I ever are at ours. And yet, redeeming the backwards cap may be the most impressive feat of all.
2. This is Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a series pitting James’ Cleveland Cavaliers against the Atlanta Hawks, and it’s both a sad commentary and absolutely true to say that this is the most important game in Atlanta’s history. The Hawks have never advanced out of the second round, and after losing Game 1 at home, this is a must-win. This represents Atlanta’s best-ever chance to get to the Finals, and all the Hawks have to do is get past LeBron, which is like saying Everest isn’t so tough once you get past the climbing.
3. Tipoff is 8:30, and a little after 7, James is out on the court getting loose. He runs through a sequence: drive to pull-up jumper, step-back three-pointer, targeting the rim from every point on the 180 degrees around the rim available to a shooter. Sometimes he’ll shoot off a pass thrown by an assistant coach; more often, he’s on his own, in his own rhythm, on his own time.
4. Take a ball and slam it to the ground with one hand. Now imagine being able to manage that kind of velocity shooting upward. This is what LeBron does, every shot carrying the force of a high school football team running through a taped paper sign. But LeBron’s shots aren’t bricks or line drives; far from it. No, the shots trace graceful arcs against the sky. Thor’s hammer does, too.
5. James had entered Philips Arena, backwards hat and all, a few steps behind Kyrie Irving, who walked with a downcast sad-Charlie-Brown demeanor. Soon after, we’d learn why: Irving would be held out of tonight’s game because of lingering knee issues. Combine that with the ongoing absence of Kevin Love, and that meant James would be shouldering the entire Cavaliers franchise. Down two stars, against the No. 1 seed, on the road … who would blame Cleveland for dropping this game? The Cavs had still wrested home-court advantage away from Atlanta.
6. The Hawks’ pregame ceremony is an event in itself, combining projectors that transform the court into a movie screen with bass hammers that can redirect your heartbeat. Seriously, check this out:
The Hawks’ P.A. announcer, a local radio DJ named Ryan Cameron, takes the first shot at James: “It’s time to show The King we bow before no one!” Worth noting: that’s exactly the kind of pronouncement that gets people slaughtered on “Game of Thrones.”
7. Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll went down in Game 1 with a knee injury that looked so bad fans initially believed he was done for the year. But an MRI revealed no serious damage, and here he is, two nights later, back in the lineup amid the night’s loudest cheers. His assignment: guard LeBron James. Welcome back, knee.
8. James begins the game going right at Carroll, isolating him and then beginning a hypnotic lean-and-step-and-step-back dance. It’s almost a Bo Diddley beat: step, step, step, stepGO, and then James indeed is gone, right past Carroll for a jumper. James scores seven of Cleveland’s first nine points, and the Hawks will never get more than two points ahead of the Cavaliers.
9. Right from the start, it’s clear that James is going to do every damn thing necessary to win this game. Carroll finds this out early when he gets a bit lackadaisical bringing the ball up the court. James swoops in on him from out of nowhere, and Carroll just manages to get the ball away, his body language that of a man who stepped off a curb without looking and very nearly walked into a moving bus.
10. They film “The Walking Dead” all around here – you can even see Philips Arena in the background of one scene from this past season – and by the second quarter, the Hawks have the exact demeanor of anyone on that show who has to walk into a darkened house or a dank forest. You know something’s out there waiting to devour you, you just don’t know when it’s going to make its move.
11. With two minutes left in the first quarter, LeBron drives toward the rim with all the relentless momentum of high tide. Atlanta’s Pero Antic makes the same move a kid makes when trying to stop a wave – arms spread wide as it crashes down on him – and the results are about as effective. LeBron takes the hit and then pinwheels his arms, an acting job that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the English Premier League, and the result is a flagrant foul. “That’s not a flagrant, that’s basketball!” one fan yells as LeBron shoots, and his protests are about as effective as yelling at the ocean. James’ free throws put the Cavs up 19-17, and Atlanta will not see the lead again.
12. LeBron begins the second quarter on the bench in full sweats. If Atlanta’s going to make a move, this would be the time. No move happens. At one point, Matthew Dellavedova works an ankle-snapping juke-and-score move on Atlanta’s Dennis Schroeder, ugly enough to force a timeout, and LeBron is the first one off the bench to celebrate.
13. Back in the game, LeBron absolutely buffaloes the Hawks every possession. This time, he’s driving the lane and throwing himself into three Hawks at once. Next time, he’s knocking Kyle Korver backward with a shoulder shrug. Another time, he matches up with Jeff Teague, six inches and 60 pounds smaller than LeBron, and it goes exactly as well for Teague as you’d expect.
14. As the night rolls on, the Hawks throw everyone they can against James. Carroll, Teague, Korver, Kent Bazemore, Mike “The Regional Manager” Scott … none of them can even slow him down. Each time, it’s like asking the water skier to halt the boat.
15. Then comes one of the night’s definitive moves. LeBron dribbles straight into Carroll, losing none of his momentum, and follows that by leaping toward the basket. In midair, he collides with Al Horford, then decides to dish the ball to Iman Shumpert on the right wing. Shumpert, who’s so open that he could run to the concourse for a pretzel if he wanted, buries the three. Up in the stands, Atlanta’s famed Sir Foster is blending tunes as diverse as the Jackson 5, Ozzy Osbourne and Lil’ Jon into a propulsive mix; down on the floor, James – faster than anyone bigger, bigger than anyone faster – is doing very much the same thing.
16. There are plenty of LeBron supporters in the crowd – this is Atlanta, after all, a city perfectly willing to glom onto sparkly celebrity over competent familiarity – but one fellow stands out. Literally. He’s wearing a LeBron jersey, and his arms are sleeved with tattoos – we’ll call him LeBro – and he stands in Section 111, ten rows back from the court, for virtually the entire game. But when asked who he prefers, LeBron or Michael Jordan, he offers a surprising answer, pointing to his left bicep. There, amid gothic swirls and slashes, is a clearly visible Jumpman logo. “Jordan’s better, but LeBron’s going to pass him,” LeBro (real name: Robert Schneider Jr.) says. “Jordan could score from anywhere, but LeBron can score, pass, rebound. He can do anything.” It’s a surprisingly prescient comment, one that James himself echoes in the postgame press conference two hours later.
17. The Hawks have hurled themselves against the walls of Fort LeBron time and again, and at last have broken. Korver rolls an ankle and leaves the game. Horford bangs knees with Shumpert and limps to the sideline. A taped hype video tries to motivate the crowd into remembering how much heart these Hawks have shown the world. LeBron is now grabbing that heart and showing it to the Hawks.
18. Midway through the third quarter, the energy in the building has evaporated. With eight minutes left in the fourth, fans start heading for the exits. With six minutes left, James goes to the line, and Hawks fans can’t even muster up the energy to wave any of the thousands of long red-and-white balloons that cheerleaders keep distributing.
19. With 2:45 left in a game that will end 94-82, James motions to come out. He finishes a whisker short of a triple-double, with 30 points, nine rebounds, and 11 assists. Cheers ring out throughout the arena, mainly because there’s no one left to boo. Just before tipoff, word had leaked out of a possible new logo for the Hawks. After tonight, the entire team might want a new identity.
20. Immediately after the game, Turner Sports’ Rachel Nichols interviews James, who decides to do the interview while sitting on the scorer’s table. Why not? As of tonight, he owns this place.
21. Each game, the Cavs PR team selects two players to come to the podium and meet the assembled press to close out the night. It’s LeBron, always LeBron, with a rotating cast of partners. This time around, Shumpert plays Robin to James’ Batman. In previous games, it’s been Dellavedova, or J.R. Smith, or Irving, or Tristan Thompson. “Next man up,” James says when asked about his rotating wingmen. Both James and Shumpert look exhausted, their eyes glassy, their quotes routine and, largely, brief. It’s an uninspired performance from two guys who turned in some next-level basketball just a few minutes before.
22. It’s also all an act. As soon as the press conference wraps, LeBron and Shumpert light up like high-beams. Away from the podium, walking toward the bus that will take them to the airport, they laugh and grin and pause for pictures. LeBron, behind ink-black shades and that backwards cap, is the alpha dog here, The King greeting members of his court. His clap-handshake as he warmly greets each friend echoes in the back halls of Philips Arena.
23. It’s the exact same sound that the balloons out front made when they popped.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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