LeBron James throws down monster dunks during mentoring visit to Philippines
LeBron James didn’t dunk as often last season as he has in years past. The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player threw down just 88 dunks in 69 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2014-15 campaign, down from 134 in 77 games for the Miami Heat in 2013-14, 144 in 76 games in 2012-13 and 104 in just 62 games in ’11-’12, according to NBA.com. In fact, last year represented the third lowest dunks-per-game mark of James’ career, topping only his first season in Florida (98 in 79, 1.24 per game) and his rookie year with the Cavs (91 in 79, 1.15 per game), according to Basketball-Reference’s handy Play Index+ Shot Finder.
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LeBron apologized for a lack of early-season above-the-rim play before picking up the pace a bit after a two-week midseason siesta, but it seemed clear that — despite the carb-cutting and intense workouts — James was less explosive and more groundbound at age 30, after four straight years of Finals trips with the Heat and more than 36,000 career NBA minutes. But just because LeBron doesn’t throw down monster dunks as often anymore doesn’t mean LeBron can’t throw down monster dunks, as he showed those in attendance at an exhibition game in the Philippines earlier this week:
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James showed off his still-oiled-up springs during an exhibition game as part of a four-day trip to Manila “to mentor finalists of ‘Rise,’ a Nike-sponsored reality TV program aimed at finding young Filipino basketball players, mostly from the countryside, and to hone their talents.”
Residents of the basketball-mad country seized on the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Cavs star — tickets for his Manila appearance “were snapped up by eager fans” in “just 15 minutes” — and gave James an exceedingly warm welcome, according to Camille B. Naredo of ABS-CBN News.com:
“You guys always welcome me and my guys and my friends with open arms, so it’s always a pleasure,” James said during a brief press conference.
This time around, James is in town to serve as a mentor of sorts to young basketball players who are participating in Nike’s “Rise” program, and the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player hopes to impart some valuable messages to the contestants.
“I think, it’s more than teaching them the skill sets,” he said. “It’s about the inspiration that comes behind it. To tell them about the game, and it’s up to them to use that – the words that I tell them, and to use those to better themselves.”
As James tells it, that emphasis on mentoring, inspiration and lending a helping hand — which also helped drive his new partnership with the University of Akron to provide guaranteed four-year college scholarships to qualifying students through his “I Promise” program — comes in part from an ability to recognize and relate to the struggle for improving one’s station in life that many of “the Rise kids” are experiencing, according to The Associated Press:
“I think my story speaks for itself, you know I was a kid who didn’t believe that I can’t make my dream become a reality, and I know it will take a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifice and a lot of love,” he said. “I just love the game so much that I won’t let nobody tell me that I couldn’t accomplish something, so I know exactly what a lot of these kids are going through.”
The four-time NBA MVP […] said it “feels great to be able to be someone that people look to, to be able to accomplish more.”
We presume it must also feel great to be able to be someone that can still call down quite a bit of thunder, even after a dozen seasons of heavy-duty NBA minutes.
Hat-tip to Lang Whitaker at All Ball.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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