Fitted for a crown?
Heir may have finally been found in James
SAN ANTONIO -- It is, without question, the LeBron James Show. The 2007 NBA Finals may well go down in history as the fourth championship in nine years for the San Antonio Spurs, a remarkable achievement.
But, until that happens, it is going to be All LeBron, All The Time.
The Cleveland Cavaliers' outrageously precocious 22-year-old is making his first NBA Finals appearance in just his fourth season in the NBA -- and only his second in the post season. He is the pack mule right out of Central Casting, carrying a quasi-talented team with no other discernible All-Star, as well as the hopes of a victory-starved city whose last major title was in 1964. Yet he's handling it with all the aplomb and savvy of the man to whom he is often being compared this week: Michael Jordan.
His Airness even took time out from his busy motorcycle racing life (oh, there's some basketball, too) to offer the following on James's ascension to the NBA's elite series: "What just transpired was something I felt was needed for the league, was needed for Cleveland, was needed for LeBron," Jordan told the Chicago Tribune. "Making 'The Leap' is where you do it every single night. It's expected of you, and you do it. Not one game, not two games. It's consistent. Every defense comes in and they focus on you and you still impact the game. I think he's shown signs of that."
It took Jordan seven years to make his first NBA Final. James did it in about half the half the time with, it seems, half the team. Only four years ago, when James's high school games were getting on national television, the Cavaliers won 17 games. Take away James and you'd probably have another 17-win team. The 2007 Cavaliers may be the most unlikely NBA Finals participant since the 1981 Houston Rockets. Their one, undeniable, uberstar, is younger than every player on the team save for the two rookies, Shannon Brown and Daniel Gibson.
"I feel like -- I just feel like a veteran," James said yesterday on the eve of Game 1 of the series, tonight at the AT&T Center. "I don't say I don't feel 22. I'm not hurting or anything like that. My body is not down or anything like that. I just feel like when you look at a guy like Daniel Gibson playing on the backcourt with you, or you look at Sasha [Pavlovic] and Andy [Varejao], you know these guys look like younger guys to you, but when you really look at it, Sasha and Andy are really older than me. But I'm kind of the leader and I'm kind of the role model for those guys."
James and the Cavaliers were thought to be a mere irritant to the Pistons in the conference finals, although there were early signs Detroit could be had. Cleveland was in position to win every game and James even drew some criticism for passing up a potential game-tying shot at the end of Game 1. He instead passed to a wide-open Donyell Marshall, who missed a 3-pointer.
"He made the perfect play," Pacers' basketball boss Larry Bird said yesterday. "What else could you ask for? He got one of the best 3-point shooters in the game a wide-open look? It was the right play, but he probably didn't even think about whether it was or wasn't. He just did it on instinct. At that point, your instincts take over and he has great instincts."
He went to the hoop on a similar play in Game 2, drew contact, did not get the call, and the Cavaliers went back home down, 2-0. They didn't lose another game. In Game 5, James put his name on the short list for greatest single achievement in a playoff game when he scored 48 points, including 29 of the last 30 and the final 25 in a double-overtime Cleveland victory. When the Pistons swarmed him in Game 6, he dutifully passed off, but still finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists in the conference-title clinching victory.
And, just like that, the Cavaliers were in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. Never mind that they might have had trouble even making the playoffs in the Western Conference. They took advantage of an excellent draw in the post season and beat the teams they had to beat, including the Pistons.
James was asked if he had any idea of how long it was going to take for the Cavaliers to get to the Finals when he joined them as an 18-year-old in 2003.
"I never put a time limit on it," he said. "I honestly believed we could get better every year. We won 30-something games my rookie year [35 ] and then [42 ] games in my second year, missed the playoffs, and in my third year we won 50 and in my fourth year we won 50 . And we've gotten better every single year.
"You can have so many struggles during the course of a season, so many people criticizing your team, [saying], 'they don't have enough pieces, they're not a good-enough outside shooting team, Coach Brown lacks this, LeBron lacks this,' but we've also believed."
Bird said he felt James has evolved into a better player as the post season has progressed.
"You don't really know how good you are until you do it in the playoffs," Bird said. "The regular season is one thing. The playoffs is another thing. And each round of the playoffs is different. You don't know how good you are until you go deep in the playoffs and I think he knows now how good he is. He makes his teammates better. And if you've got a guy like that on your team, you always have hope."
The Finals represents the latest rite of passage for James and it remains to be seen if he and the Cavaliers can make the series competitive enough to draw in the casual fan and keep him tuned in. The games are bound to be low scoring with two defensive-minded teams, not exactly the kind of stuff that increases ratings.
The Spurs are the model of efficiency and excellence, but also have been part of some of the lowest-rated NBA Finals ever, despite a cast that features perennial All-Star Tim Duncan. And they are accustomed to being underappreciated outside of San Antonio, so this national (and natural) obsession with James comes as no surprise to them.
"They never talk about us that much anyway," said San Antonio's Tony Parker, who probably qualifies as the closest celebrity the Spurs have only because of his pending nuptials to actress Eva Longoria. "During the whole season they always talk about Phoenix and Dallas. It's OK with us. I think we like to be in that position because it makes us keep working hard and keep improving. It's normal they're going to talk about LeBron. It's his first Finals. People have a tendency to always like new stuff, and it's his first Finals, so I think it's normal. But when the Finals start, we'll see who's the best team."
Ah, yes, it will come to that, won't it? But until this series is resolved -- and Game 2 isn't until Sunday -- the talk will be about LeBron. The NBA has been looking for a Jordanesque player since 1998, the last year of Jordan's six titles, and thought it had one in Kobe Bryant. Then, last year, it thought it had another in Dwyane Wade. It may still be either one of them, or even both. It may be Greg Oden.
Or it may be the guy who wears Jordan's No. 23 for the Cavaliers. Right now, he's the next next thing.
Peter May can be reached at P_May@globe.com. 