LeBron James, as Always, Aims to Take Center Stage at Madison Square Garden
NEW YORK — A city capable of perpetual surprise had a few more in store Sunday night, whether it was Queen Latifah singing a subdued national anthem, or Dirk Nowitzki dunking a lob for the first time in more than a decade, or the something-close-to-septuagenarian Liberty Timeless Torches dropping it like it's hot during an All-Star timeout.
But something was absolutely entirely as expected:
LeBron James came to play.
This shouldn't have stunned anyone, even after he equivocated Saturday, during an interview with The Associated Press (via The New York Times) at a foundation event at a Boys & Girls Club in Harlem, when asked about how he would approach his 11th All-Star appearance. He said he hadn't decided what he would do with whatever minutes he played, not sure if he should "go out and do one of those LeBron games" or perhaps take a slight step back.
But there was never really a question, not if you know anything about him; know his drive for history, the standing he still believes he holds among his peers and his tendency—even if at times inadvertently—to tease and torture a city with fans he respects in a building he reveres.
It shouldn't have been a surprise if you have sensed that, yes, while he doesn't always show it, he actually has a Kobe side.
And so, of course, after hearing cheers that have otherwise been uncommon in Madison Square Garden, he came out firing from the start of the East's 163-158 loss to the West, taking more shots (21) and scoring more points (30) than all but Oklahoma City's frenetic and flammable Russell Westbrook, who took 28, scored 41 and went home with the MVP.
In the game's first four minutes, LeBron flushed the finish of a give-and-go with John Wall, dunked another pass from Wall, air-balled a three-pointer, tomahawk slammed as the lane opened, stole a James Harden pass, and fed Wall for an alley-oop jam.
So much for taking it easy, even with a wrist that had been irritating him, even as the Cavaliers were winning 14 of 16 games entering the All-Star break.
So much for slacking off, after a weekend in which he again was run ragged with the usual foundation appearances, sponsor events, press conferences and parties, and which also included him agreeing to take on a potentially taxing responsibility as the new vice president of an NBA players union on the precipice of a contentious period.
But his effort and performance were never in doubt, considering the factors covered above. The setting and stakes wouldn't allow for any relaxing Sunday.
Start with the site.
Perhaps he takes no perverse pleasure in trolling New Yorkers, and Knicks fans in particular, though you'd have a hard time convincing some of that team's most ardent supporters. On Nov. 25, 2008, he visited during his first stint with the Cavaliers, about 20 months prior to first becoming a free agent, and after the Knicks had traded Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph in order to put themselves in position to eventually pursue him.
Back then, he advised New York fans to "stay open-minded" and promised that July 1, 2010, would "be a big day." He ultimately met with the Knicks in 2010 but picked the Heat instead.
In doing so, he passed on the opportunity to play at least 41 games per season in a place where, as he said, this Friday, "if I could have 82 regular-season games in the Garden, I would because it's the Mecca of basketball."
Late Sunday, after his first All-Star Game in that building, James was asked why he never ended up with New York's team, one that has gone into a tailspin since, with Plan A (Amare Stoudemire) and Plan B (Carmelo Anthony) on the verge of getting bought out, per Tim McMahon and Marc Stein of ESPN.com, and shut down, respectively.
Why never a Knick?
"I don't know," James said. "Just didn't work out that way. I spent my first seven years in Cleveland. When I became a free agent in 2010, I felt what was best for me was to go to Miami. And when I became a free agent once again this past summer, I thought what was best was going back home. My family was feeling very comfortable. And that's how it goes."
And so it went Sunday, as it almost always does for him here:
He put on another show.
But it probably wasn't the stage alone that got him going.
It may have been about age, too.
James has spoken regularly about his basketball mortality, acknowledging the creeping presence of Father Time, as it was dead set on doing to James, with a chase-down block, what it has done to so many others.
Saturday, in that interview with the Associated Press, he cited it again.
"I don’t have 12 more years left, so I’m headed more downhill then I am going up. I don’t know what chapter in my career I’m at. I would just say chapter 12 and we’ll see where we go from here. I’ve got a lot of basketball ahead of me, but I’m not the 18- or 21-year-old kid anymore.”
No, and he knows that more of those are coming. The next "next."
Anthony Davis, just 21, was sidelined for his contest with a shoulder injury, but Klay Thompson (25), James Harden (25) and Stephen Curry (26) were in the West's starting lineup, and John Wall (24) was in the East's. Kevin Durant is 26, Westbrook is 26, Damian Lillard is 24 and James' Cavaliers teammate, Kyrie Irving, is 22. This is a new generation, a different generation, as James' closest contemporaries—Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony, start to slide a bit to the side.
And even James had seemed to be pushed back, just a bit, by America's new darling, the eminently relatable Curry, who earned more All-Star votes overall (while in the most competitive category of West backcourt), whose sky-high vertical electronic "Express Men" billboard lit up Times Square all weekend, who splashed and splashed and splashed his way to the Three-Point Contest victory on Saturday night, and who earned even more national adulation by writing the name of a North Carolina shooting victim on his shoes.
James has spoken in nothing less than glowing terms of Curry and all of the young rising stars, and he is viewed as a big brother by many around the league, in a way that the more combative Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant never were. But James is also proud of his place, and he clearly doesn't care to cede it easily.
That may remind you of a certain, stubborn longtime Lakers star, one that James has admitted of late that he's taking as more of a model.
Does he take pride in showing the younger players what he can do?
"You definitely enjoy it," James said:
"I was one of the young guys at a time. I was seeing the older guys. And you try to make your mark. And now being in the reverse role, you just know that our league is in good hands. I'm going to try to continue to do what I need to do to represent this league with the utmost respect both on the floor and off the floor. But our league is definitely in good hands with the young group of talent that we have that's playing great basketball right now.
"
One thing is still in the hands of an old guy—a guy named Bryant—even after Sunday night.
James needed 32 points to catch Bryant, sidelined for the season, for the most All-Star points in NBA history, in fewer games.
He came up just two short, missing his final three-point attempt with 9.9 seconds left. Or maybe he just needed not to uncharacteristically blow a dunk, on a pass from Wall, much earlier in the exhibition.
When it was over, a reporter mistakenly thought James had tied the Lakers great, and James didn't correct him. At the end of a long, tiring weekend, that would have been too much trouble.
"Any time you're in the conversation with a great is very humbling," James said. "It's an honor. And I just got to keep getting better and better hopefully, and keep understanding how I got here and why I'm here."
He was great in New York, while still near the top of his game.
To show anything less would surely be a shame.
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