LeBron James keeps his Olympic gold medal in his home office, and from time to time Cleveland’s star takes a peek at it.
“It’s a pretty sight,” he said.
James spent part of his summer helping the U.S. basketball team redeem its global superiority by winning it all at the Beijing Games. At just 23, he was the undisputed leader of that 12-player squad comprised of superstar talents and supersized egos.
“If you can lead 11 of the best guys in the world, you can lead anybody,” James said on Monday. “If I can lead Kobe Bryant and MVPs, I should be able to lead Daniel Gibson.”
James has visions of another exquisite, glittering prize — the NBA championship trophy. And he thinks it’s within the Cavaliers’ reach.
“As a leader, I think I can lead these guys to the championship,” he said. “We really believe that. It’s not about making the playoffs for our team anymore. It’s about winning a championship.”
The Cavaliers have come close. Two years ago, they made their first trip to the finals before being overwhelmed and swept in four games by the San Antonio Spurs. Last season, they pushed the eventual champion Boston Celtics to seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
This year, the Cavaliers, who acquired point guard Mo Williams this summer in a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks, feel they can finish the job.
“We all have one goal, and that’s a championship,” said Williams, who averaged 17.2 points, 6.3 assists and 3.5 rebounds for the Bucks. “We’re not just talk. Every team in the league is saying they are going to win a championship. But we’re confident. We know that if we put in the work and focus, we can do it. It’s all we talk about.”
James has a different aura about him as he enters his sixth season as a pro.
In many ways, he’s still a kid. As he sat down to field questions, James tore open a bag of candy to snack on before posing for photographers who politely asked him to smile while demanding he hold a basketball every way its humanly possible. At one point, teammate Anderson Varejao interrupted one session and stood next to James wearing an “I’m With Stupid” T-shirt.
Williams, who scored a season-high 37 points against the Cavaliers last season, is the best point guard Cleveland has had since James arrived, and with him on the floor, the Cavaliers should be able to play at a faster pace than in previous years.
“He can allow me to play off him,” James said. “I don’t have to bring the ball up as much. I’m going to emphasize on just running the floor a lot. You look at me in the summer time, when I’m playing with great point guards like Jason Kidd and Deron Williams and Chris Paul. For the most part, you just see me run the floor. It’s easy for me. Now with Mo Williams here and Delonte [West] and Boobie [Gibson], I can do that. I can get out on the break.”
James can’t seem to get a break from the endless speculation that he intends to leave Cleveland as a free agent when his contract runs out in two years. But he has also fueled that by constantly wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap and expressing his loyalty to the Bronx Bombers, as well as the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
James wishes all the talk would stop.
“I’ve never given no indication I was leaving Cleveland,” James said. “I never gave any indication I didn’t like being here, every time I’m asked that question. I love being here. I love playing in front of these fans. My family is here. I grew up 30 miles [48km] away from here. I’ve never given any indication that I did not like playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now I did say I like the Yankees and the Cowboys. It has nothing to do with the Cavaliers.”
James smiled as he again explained his allegiance to out-of-town teams, a fact that rubs some Cleveland fans the wrong way.
“Am I not allowed to be a fan of what team I want?” he said. “When I grew up watching sports, the Cowboys were the team to love.”
“If I say I like Michael Jordan, is that a problem? If I didn’t say [Cavaliers All-Star] Mark Price, is that a problem? Is it? That’s who I grew up watching. These are the teams and people who inspired me when I was growing up,” he said.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
RSS