How Will LeBron James Make His Mark?
Michael Jordan had The Shot to win a first-round series in 1989

By Michael Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 16, 2006

CLEVELAND -- When LeBron James crashed to the floor at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Wednesday, Cleveland Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said his heart skipped a beat. Brown sprinted down the court to check on James as the franchise crawled around on his right knee, writhing in pain, with his left foot elevated.

In that brief moment of despair, discussions of James's late charge at the league's most valuable player award, his string of nine consecutive games with at least 35 points, and his recent success at hitting buzzer-beating jumpers didn't matter. As James limped off the court late in the third quarter of a loss against the Detroit Pistons, they were replaced by thoughts of another LeBron-less postseason.

To the relief of Brown and many around basketball, it was only a sprained ankle. Nothing serious. Nothing that would keep James out of more than just one regular season game -- he is expected to play Sunday night against the Washington Wizards -- and certainly nothing that will keep him out of the playoffs, something the city of Cleveland has been without for eight years. In his third season, James will finally get to take the stage in the NBA playoffs. "It's something that I dreamed about the last two years," James said.

James, who will make his final appearance at Verizon Center this season Sunday night unless the Wizards can secure the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, has had a spectacular regular season. At only 21, he is about to become the fourth player in NBA history to average at least 31 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, joining a small fraternity that includes Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and Michael Jordan. In leading the long-suffering Cavaliers to the playoffs for the first time since 1998 (when he was in seventh grade), James has improved in almost all aspects of his game -- shooting, scoring, rebounding, passing and leadership on and off the court.

"He's one of the top two or three players in the league now," Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups said. "He's climbed to the top of the mountain very quickly. With the hype he got coming in, it was hard to imagine that he could've lived up to it. He's surpassed it."

But James understands that his already larger-than-life persona -- he is featured attempting a dunk on a 10-story billboard in downtown Cleveland with the caption, "We're All Witnesses" -- can elevate only in the postseason. "That's a road you have to follow if you want to be considered among the great ones," said NBA Commissioner David Stern, who will surely enjoy the ratings boost James's presence in the playoffs will provide. "The campaign last year about the Finals was 'where legends are born,' and I think you could have said that for the playoffs. . . . Clearly in order to write yourself large in NBA history, you've got to be in the playoffs."

Many around the league are anxious to see how James responds, but Brown said he has no concerns about James. "I think it is going to be an adjustment period for him. You can hear about it, you can watch it on TV, but until you go through it and experience it, you won't really know what you're getting into," Brown said. "But that guy has ice water in his veins. He's about as cool as there is out there. Not once have I seen him fold or panic. I can't see the playoffs being a place where he is going to . . . get scared."

This is the same James who scored 21 fourth-quarter points in a losing effort against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden earlier this month. During a break in play late in the game, James leaned against the scorer's table and began munching on his fingernails. Teammate Damon Jones ran over to James and began shouting at the young star, telling him that this was his time to take over the game. Jones kept yapping, but James's eyes never moved beyond his cuticles. He didn't need to hear a pep talk. They don't usually work anyway, for someone who has already discovered that nothing anyone tells him will ever come close to the experience of actually going through it. "I had to figure everything out on my own," James said.

Few players make an immediate impact their first time in the postseason. Michael Jordan advanced to the postseason as a rookie, but needed four trips to actually win a playoff series. Shaquille O'Neal got swept. Kobe Bryant is remembered for shooting two air balls in crunch time against Utah.

"At every level of his short NBA career, he's responded, and I think he'll respond in the playoffs. But it's not going to be easy. No matter how great those guys are, it's not easy the first time," said Cavaliers point guard Eric Snow, who played in Philadelphia with Allen Iverson, one of the few stars who dived right into playoff success.

James has a man's body, a full beard and maturity beyond his years. He said he is prepared for the playoff grind, when the intensity is ratcheted up several notches and defenses deliver poundings on a nightly basis. "I don't worry about it," said James, who is averaging 31.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists this season. "My game doesn't change. I'm still going to be the same player I am right now in the regular season. The level of intensity does step up a bit, but that doesn't mean my game steps down. My game elevates to the level of play."

James has raised his game considerably in the past two months. The Cavaliers (48-31) have won 12 of their past 14 games. During that run, he has recorded two triple-doubles. He scored at least 30 points 10 games in a row. He silenced some of his critics who said he was afraid to take the final shot by hitting game-winners against Charlotte and New Orleans/Oklahoma City. "I don't go out there and try to prove nothing to nobody," James said, but later added, "I'm happy I have few under my belt."

He was named Eastern Conference player of the month in March and became the first player to ever win player of the week honors in three consecutive weeks. "The level he's playing at now, I don't know if anyone is even close," said Cavaliers General Manager Danny Ferry, who hopes to sign James to a five-year contract extension this summer. "It's different now. His will has taken over the last two months. He says 'I'm not quitting. We're going to get this game.' He's really been driven in that regard and it's obviously had an effect on our team."

That will was on display in New Jersey on April 8, when James scored 18 fourth-quarter points and provided one of the best highlights of the season. Trailing by three in the final minute, James picked up a loose ball from Vince Carter and sprinted down the court, creating some open space in transition before he met a road block. Nets forward Cliff Robinson reached in and hacked James while teammate Jason Kidd placed his hand on the ball and pushed down. But in a remarkable display of strength, James jumped into the air, broke free of Robinson and Kidd, and spun a layup off the glass that went in.

James sank the free throw to complete the three-point play and tie the game. Kidd called it "an MVP play." Brown said, "He was like a linebacker let loose." The shot crushed the Nets, who were on a 14-game winning streak, and helped the Cavaliers clinch home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a 108-102 victory. "He has developed the inner strength, the hunger, a little meanness, which you have to have in order to be great," said former Cleveland coach Paul Silas, who coached James his first two seasons in the league.

Silas has been impressed with James's progression in his third season, but said James has made his greatest leap in terms of leadership. "It's his ballclub now and everybody knows it," Silas said. "He was so young when he first came in, he didn't really understand what leadership meant. Of course, he had not really done anything in the pros, so veterans were real reluctant to listen to what he was saying, even when he was right on the money."

James recently admitted that when he first entered the league, he deferred to Ricky Davis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas and kept his mouth shut. He has been much more vocal this season and grown more comfortable in the role of team leader. "I don't know when it happened, but right now, it's my team," James said, then looked around the cramped visiting locker room at the Palace of Auburn Hills and found no dissenters.

With the Cavaliers on pace to win 50 games despite former Wizard Larry Hughes, Cleveland's big offseason acquisition, missing 45 games with a broken finger, Brown said there is no doubt in his mind that James is the most valuable player of the league. "You take the second-best player away from any team and you ask yourself if that team is going to be in position to win 50 games. You'd say, 'No,' " Brown said. "That's just LeBron getting it done. He's been terrific."

Already the youngest MVP of the all-star game, James was asked what being considered for MVP meant to him. "Nothing," he said.

The playoffs mean more.