Perkins: LeBron James has completed turnaround from villain to hero

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MIAMI – LeBron James has completed the rarely seen transition from national villain to national darling. For the first time in two years, there’s no over-the-top hatred for James to start the season. There’s no venom or vitriol. It’s been an amazing transition to watch.

Kobe Bryant made a similar change/comeback a few years ago. LeBron’s might have been bigger.

“Quicker,” Dwyane Wade said with a smile. “But I don’t know about bigger. You can go with quicker comeback.”

OK, he’s got a point. Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar who was once among the nation’s favorite athletes, was Public Enemy No. 1 after his incident in Colorado and his very public feud with teammate Shaquille O’Neal.

Then he won a title. And another one. He kept his marriage intact and carried himself as a gentleman. All of a sudden he had made the greatest American comeback since Bill Clinton.

And so it is with LeBron. He won, and now he’s loved again. Not that he’s keeping track of applause and compliments.

About an hour after he scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Heat to a 120-107 season-opening victory over Boston on Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena, James opined on his Great American Comeback. Perhaps a bit surprisingly, he said he’s not sure whether he’s loved again.

“I have no idea,” he said. “And I don’t even really worry about that or even listen to what’s going on. Honestly, I just be me, do me, and let everything else take care of itself.”

James is a hero of sorts once again, largely because he won the MVP, Finals MVP and Olympic gold medal, and the Heat – as the defending NBA champions – are likeable. No one is complaining about LeBron being a choker, not having a low-post game or passing on the final shot. He’s no longer the butt of jokes.

Love is in the air. It’s another example of how James is a truly unique player, talent and person. It’s also another example of how winning cures all.

James phrases the reason for the turnaround differently.

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Perkins: LeBron James is chasing all-time Greatness

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MIAMI – As LeBron James enters his 10th NBA season, title in hand, the pressure is off – for the most part. The Miami Heat forward is no longer a choker, a fraud, a slacker. Now, he’s The Man.

That frees him up to cement his legacy and chase legends such as Michael Jordan (six titles), Magic Johnson (five titles) and, yes, even Kobe Bryant (five titles).

His battle isn’t with himself, it’s with all-time greatness. He plans to run the race at full speed.

“I’m not satisfied with my career, what I’ve done so far,” James said Friday at the Heat’s media day. “I’ve accomplished a lot of things and a lot of goals. But I’m not satisfied with that.”

To hear Heat coach Erik Spoelstra talk, James will never be satisfied.

Ever.

It’s a large part of what makes him great.

“You saw the summer, right?” Spoelstra asked about James’ performance at the London Olympics. “That’s who he is. He is an ultimate competitor, and the ultimate competitors, the great ones, the historic ones, get greedy and they want more.”

James, perhaps more than any other current player, studies the NBA’s past. He knows what he has to do — win multiple championships — to be considered among the best, if not The Best. He knows what would elevate him above Jordan, Magic, Kobe, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, and maybe a couple of others. You know the list.

James claims that’s not on his mind right now.

“I don’t think about what the other greats have done,” he said. “I know the history of the game, I know what’s been accomplished in this league throughout the years. But I’m my own man and I have to make my own mark.”

Those who know James understand there’s never been any shame in his game.

And it’s that way every minute of his existence.

Ask the league’s most versatile player whether his exploits of this year – NBA title, NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP, and Olympic gold medalist – validate him as the best player on the planet, he’ll look you dead in the eye and relate his reality.

“I’ve thought that for a long time, (that) I’m the best player,” he said. “That’s the way I approach the game, though.”

We all remember when there were major doubts about James’ game. Heck, it was just a year ago. People wondered whether he had what it takes to lead a team to a title, whether he’s clutch. His overmatched Cleveland Cavaliers were swept by San Antonio in the 2007 NBA Finals. And the next few years brought even more disappointment and heartache.

But those doubts raged to a new level after his relatively embarrassing performance against Dallas in the 2011 NBA Finals. Those doubts are long gone now.

“What it’s done for now is it’s taken a little pressure off him,” teammate Dwyane Wade said of the title. “But not too much. He’s expected to do amazing things. I’m glad I don’t have the pressure he does.”

James has never run away from the pressure. Haters, which includes some of the game’s all-time best (Jordan and Bird, in particular) basically contended James’ chickened out by joining Wade and Chris Bosh and forming the Heat’s Big Three in the summer of 2010. They considered it taking the easy way out.

James fought through the very public criticism and now he’s a champion, and he’s looking for more rings. But he says that’s more about the team’s legacy, the legacy of the Big Three and Miami Heat franchise more than his own selfish interest. Still, he’s well aware he has a chance to be considered among the all-time greats.

“I’m on the right path as far as my career,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of ups, I’ve had some downs, but this game has given me a lot and I owe it back, I owe everything to this game. So we’ll see. I think only time can tell.

“You can’t predict the future. You just have to kind of live every day like it’s your last and I’m prepared for that.”

Considering James is just 27 years old, he’ll have plenty of time and opportunity to chase the greats. Realistically, he could play at his current level for another six or seven years. After that he could still play a few more years at an All-Star level.

If he does that, and wins a few more titles, he’d have to be considered among the all-time best. And he might even rise to earn the title of The Best.

But the is a discussion for the distant future.

“As far as legacy though, I don’t think about that at this point,” he said. “I’ve still got a lot of basketball to play.”

Chris Perkins is a veteran Miami-based sports journalist who covers the Miami Heat for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

 

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Perkins: Wade was stunned by Nash-to-Lakers

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MIAMI – From Dwyane Wade’s point of view, the Los Angeles’ Lakers second major acquisition of the offseason didn’t surprise him. Dwight Howard-to-LA was always on the backburner.

It was the first one — the acquisition of Steve Nash — that caught him off guard.

“They’re making a play for a championship,” Wade told SheridanHoops.com Saturday on his nationwide book-signing tour.

“It’s not a surprising move that Dwight Howard went over there. I was kinda surprised to see Steve Nash. That was the one that was surprising.”

Call it The Great Impending Collision. We all expect to see it in mid-June, correct?

Heat vs. Lakers in the NBA Finals.

L.A.’s Big Three (Kobe Bryant, Howard and Nash) vs. Miami’s Big Three (Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh). It’s on.

“They’re putting themselves in position to compete for a championship,” Wade said. “Same thing we did in 2010.”

Dwyane Wade’s sons — Zaire (l) and Zion — ham it up Saturday during their father’s book-signing stop in Miami.

As Wade talked, fans periodically cheered. There was the “Let’s Go Heat!” chant, the “D-Wade!” chant, and the “We Love Wade!” chant. The latter most accurately captured the spirit of the day.

James might be the most popular Miami Heat player, but Wade, despite that rough patch during the Indiana playoff series, remains the most beloved. Saturday served as yet another example.

Even before Wade was visible, several hundred Heat fans, young and old, broke out into an “M-V-P!” chant that briefly rattled the rafters at the Sports Authority sporting goods store at Dolphin Mall in southwest Miami.

“I’m a Lakers fan,” one youthful attendee was overheard saying, “but…”

The crowd, which numbered around 3,000, maybe more, was gathered to have Wade, the two-time NBA champion turned author, sign his book, “A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball.”

Most of the fans, who formed a line that snaked throughout the store and into the parking lot, were teenagers. That pleased Wade greatly.

“I like to see a lot of kids and a lot of youth out here because with my foundation we focus on literacy, we focus on reading, so if I can get the kids to pick up my book and read it then we’ve done something to get them back on the path we need to be on,” he said.

The book signing began at 3 p.m., but the first fans began lining up at 8 a.m.

And this was Saturday afternoon in football-crazed South Florida, at a time when the University of Miami football team was playing at 15th-ranked Kansas State.

It was a similar scene at a Miami bookstore on Sunday, when the Miami Dolphins, the bedrock of the South Florida sports scene, were playing their season opener at Houston.

And both of those scenes were a repeat of Thursday in Fort Lauderdale.

At all three locales, Wade was only scheduled to sign 800 books. Fans had to go online to get a voucher. Strict orders accompanied the voucher – no chit-chat, only one photo, Wade will only sign the book, keep it moving – but those rules failed miserably.

The same was true in New York, where the tour began. It will probably be true in Atlanta, today’s stop. And it’ll probably be true when the tour continues in his hometown of Chicago, goes on to Milwaukee and concludes in Los Angeles.

In South Florida, Wade happily chatted it up with fans, posed for multiple photos and signed more than books. That’s why they love him. It’s also why Wade, fully recovered from off-season knee surgery, is now fatigued in a different part of his body — writer’s cramp in the shoulder.

“The hand and wrist are good,” he said with a smile. “After a while your shoulder gets tired.

“But I appreciate the support from fans in Miami. In Fort Lauderdale (Friday night) going to the book signing there were 800 people who had books but there were way more people there. Just to get their support, it was great.”

As for the defending champion Heat, Wade is excited to start training camp on Sept. 29, especially with Miami’s new acquisitions of guard Ray Allen and forward Rashard Lewis. He said coach Erik Spoelstra feels the same way.

“I’m real happy with the team we have,” Wade said. “I felt it was a very good team we had last year, and we got better this summer…We have a lot of veteran guys and I think for a coach you would want to coach a team like this, so I think coach Spo is in a good position to coach a bunch of veteran guys who will still understand we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

As for the Heat-Lakers matchup in the Finals, Wade seemed happy the Lakers have formed their own Big Three. But he’s taking the wait-and-see approach.

“Nothing is guaranteed to any one of us,” he said. “There’s a lot of good teams in the league, but this will make it very competitive.”

Chris Perkins is a veteran Miami-based sports journalist who covers the Miami Heat for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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Perkins: Five Observations after Games 1 and 2 of NBA Finals

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MIAMI — The NBA Finals remain in their infancy, relatively speaking, but here are five things we know for sure, right now, at this moment, after the participants practiced and spoke to the media Saturday on the eve of Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.

James Harden and his never-say-die mentality is a primary reason the Thunder are so relentless.

1. OKLAHOMA CITY KEEPS COMING

The Thunder are like Joe Frazier. They’re like Terminators. They’re relentless. You can’t fight them off. They’re always right there. On your tail. In your face. They never give up.

Durant. Westbrook. Harden. Fisher. Sefolosha. Ibaka. Perkins. Collison. They come at you in waves. And it’s blocked shots. Rebounds. Fast breaks. 3-pointers. Tip-ins. Steals. Dunks. Everything. They’re all over the place. Yet they’re always right there.

Dallas had them down by seven with 2:30 remaining in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. The Thunder won, 99-98.

The Spurs had them down by two games, 2-0, in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder won the series in six games.

Miami had them down, 18-2, in the first quarter of Game 2 of these NBA Finals. The Heat milked that lead the rest of the night. if that game had gone another two minutes the Thunder might have recorded the come-from-behind victory.

They never quit.

“Coach always tells us, it’s hard to play well, but it’s easy to play hard,” Durant said. “If we just come out there and play hard, it makes up for a lot of the stuff that we may make mistakes on.”

2. LeBRON JAMES VS. KEVIN DURANT IS GREAT THEATER

Kevin Durant is the best scorer in the world. Better than LeBron. Better than Kobe. Better than Carmelo. Durant is the best. Period.

“He can make any shot the game has to offer, off the dribble, off the catch‑and‑shoot, off pindowns, he can make every shot,” James said. “You just try to wear on him, but he’s going to make his shots and get his points because of the type of player he is.”

LeBron James is the best all-around player in the world. Better than Kobe. Better than Wade. Better than Durant. Better than Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, anyone you want to throw in the discussion. All things considered – offense, defense, the total package of skills – LeBron is the best.

“He’s doing everything he needs to do right now to put ourselves in a position to win,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “and that’s on both ends of the court.”

So you have The Best against The Best.

And it’s a head-to-head matchup.

You didn’t get that with Magic and Bird.

You didn’t get it with Jordan vs. Karl Malone.

This is special, and it’ll only get better.

So far Durant is averaging 34.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 25 assists while shooting 57.1 percent from the field in the Finals. LeBron is averaging 31.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting 45.7 percent.

Of course, no matter what the numbers say, the true winner of this battle is the one that gets the ring.

3 DWYANE WADE IS THE X-FACTOR

OK, maybe his knee is bothering him to the point he can’t be the D-Wade we’ve seen the previous eight-plus seasons.

That’s fine.

If Wade is the engaged, aggressive, into-the-game player we saw in Game 2, the Thunder could be in big trouble.

Wade was doing everything going toward the hoop in Game 2. That’s different from Game 1, when Wade settled for jump shot after jump shot after jump shot.

In Game 2, Wade created concern for the Thunder defense and at the same time opened created opportunities for teammates.

Wade is a smart player. He knows he needs to attack, and he knows what happens when he attacks. He’s being limited by his knee ailment. But he has to find a way to be effective, and that’s what happened in Game 2. At both ends of the court.

Wade had 19 points, four rebounds, eight assists, and one steal in Miami’s 105-94 Game 1 loss.

Wade had 24 points, six rebounds, five assists and one block in Miami’s 100-96 Game 2 victory.

The big difference? Wade was 7-for-19 (.368) shooting in Game 1, including 0-for-2 on 3-pointers, when he settled for jumpers. He was 10-for-20 (.500) shooting in Game 2, and didn’t attempt a 3-pointer, because he attacked the rim.

4. THE OTHER GUYS WILL MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE

So far it’s tough to say exactly when the guys aside from the Big Three will make a huge difference.

All you know for sure is that one or two of them will, at some point in each game.

Miami’s Shane Battier hit four 3-pointers in Game 1 loss and five in Game 2.

Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka, the NBA’s regular-season leader in blocked shots, had no blocks in the Thunder’s Game 1 victory and blocked five in the Game 2 loss.

Miami’s Mike Miller gets 10 minutes in the Game 1 loss and one minute in the Game 2 victory.

Who knows if it made a big difference?

Miami used guard Norris Cole in the Game 2 victory and brought forward Udonis Haslem off the bench. Was that the difference? Not as much as Battier’s shooting.

Oklahoma City’s Nick Collison had eight points and 10 rebounds (twice as many as Bosh) in 21 minutes the Game 1 victory. He had no points and three rebounds in just 15 minutes in the Game 2 loss. Was that the difference? Did Scott Brooks forget about him? Maybe.

The trends and contributions might not be apparent yet. But we know the “other guys” will make a huge difference for the winning team.

5. THE SOUTH BEACH HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE IS OVERBLOWN

It’s crap. Don’t believe it. It doesn’t exit. It’s never existed, and Oklahoma City won’t succumb to this myth. The South Beach Advantage theory says teams visit South Beach, see the beautiful women, lose their minds, stay in the clubs all night (last call is 5 a.m.) and then they can’t play the following night. So the Heat cruises to victory.

It didn’t seem to work against Dallas in last year’s Finals.

True, Miami is more seductive than most towns. (In my opinion it has more beautiful women per capita than any other city in America; no place is even close.) But guys go out in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, every major city. Nobody said the Kobe-Shaq Lakers won because guys hung out late in Hollywood. No one ever credited Patrick Ewing’s Knicks with such an edge in The City That Never Sleeps. No one ever granted such a slant to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

And have you noticed the South Beach advantage only gets mentioned when the Heat is good?

When the Heat was winning 25, 36 or 15 games did visiting team stop hanging out on South Beach? Is that why they regularly trounced the Heat in those seasons? No. Opponents were still partying. It’s just the Heat was a bad team.

You win games with talent, and that’s why one team in these Finals will win at least two of these three games in Miami.

If the Heat happens to win two, or three, of these games I can assure you it won’t be because the Thunder partied too hard.

Dwyane Wade agrees.

“I don’t think the urge to want to go out and enjoy Miami is that important right now,” he said, “especially when in 10 days you can enjoy it as much as you want.”

Chris Perkins is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops.com, covering the NBA and the Miami Heat. Follow him on Twitter.

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Perkins: King James now undisputed leader of Heat

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MIAMI – Crown him again.

LeBron James, the most scrutinized athlete on the planet, is, indeed, The King.

King of the Miami Heat, that is.

He proved it again Saturday while leading his Miami Heat (yes, His Miami Heat) to a 101-88 Game 7 victory against Boston in the Eastern Conference finals.

Step aside, Dwyane Wade. This is now LeBron’s team, and that’s not a bad thing.

“He’s the best basketball player in the world,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said.

James finished Game 7 with 31 points and 12 rebounds while playing all but the last 28 seconds. He scored 11 of his points in the decisive fourth quarter, the time when, according to reputation, he wilts.

Game 7 was tied at 73 entering the fourth quarter. It was anybody’s game. It was anybody’s series. The Heat took it. LeBron took it.

Everybody remembers LeBron’s Game 6 performance – 45 points, 15 rebounds, five assists.

But what you really remember about that performance is the look in LeBron’s eyes.

LeBron now runs the Heat. And deservedly so.

Wade came through in Game 7, too. He had nine fourth-quarter points. He didn’t disappear. He finished with 23 points, six rebounds and six assists. He was huge.

The same goes for Chris Bosh, the “third” member of the Big Three. He had eight fourth-quarter points. He finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. He knocked down some huge 3-pointers from the corner. LeBron said he was the MVP of Game 7.

“Game ball automatically goes to him,” James said. “Without his production we don’t win.”

That might be true. And all things considered, Game 7 was a great night for the Big Three.

They combined for 73 points and 26 rebounds and led the Heat to victory in one of the biggest games in franchise history.

But James has taken over this team.

James started becoming the undisputed leader of this team late in the season when Wade, and almost every other superstar in the NBA was resting. LeBron kept playing. He ended up playing his way to his third MVP award.

And at that time the Heat had eased into a nice zone – LeBron would carry the Heat the first 46 minutes or so, and then Wade would finish. The formula worked well. Wade had problems carrying the team the entire game, and LeBron had problems being the closer.

But things changed in the postseason.

LeBron not only balled on offense, but did so while successfully defending New York’s Carmelo Anthony in Miami’s five-game victory.

In the second round, after Bosh got injured in Game 1, LeBron carried the Heat to a dramatic six-game victory against Indiana (Wade disappeared for part of that series, yelled at his coach, etc.) while making Danny Granger totally ineffective.

And in the Eastern Conference finals against Boston, LeBron saved the season, and possibly the Big Three’s legacy, with his Game 6 performance.

The funny thing about all of this is that Wade doesn’t seem to care who runs the team. It’s as if he almost welcomes LeBron’s hostile takeover.

“No matter what everyone on the outside said about me I’m a winner, I’m a team player,” Wade said.

That means he’s happy to hand over control of the Heat.

Again, we take you back to the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Game 7. It’s a tie game at 73. The conversation among Heat players is very simple.

“What we’re saying to each other is, ‘It’s time. It’s time,’ ” James said.

And that’s what LeBron’s Heat teammates are saying to him. It’s time.

Almost everybody in the NBA thinks James is the most talented player in the league. That’s hardly disputed. But what’s up for debate is whether James is the best player in the league.

LeBron, who finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, has to lead the Heat to the title. And he has to do it as the undisputed leader of the Miami Heat, as the guy who can put this team on his shoulders for all 48 minutes of every game in the Finals, and lead them to a title.

That didn’t happen last year against Dallas, but this wasn’t LeBron’s team last year. This team belonged to Dwyane Wade, firstly, and then the Big Three, secondly.

Now, it’s LeBron’s team. He’s the King.

Well, he’s The King if he comes through in the fourth quarter in this Finals matchup against Oklahoma City.

James, possibly the most gifted player the NBA has ever seen, still has to overcome that stain on his name.

“He’s a guy who is the most unselfish superstar I have ever seen,” Boston guard Keyon Dooling said. “He rebounds the ball, assists the ball and empowers friends from his community. He’s a model citizen. He shouldn’t have a stain on his reputation.”

But he does have a stain. He hasn’t won a title. If LeBron can lead His Miami Heat team to a Finals victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, we’ll finally crown him a champion as well as King of the Heat.

Chris Perkins is a regular contributor to SheridanHoops.com, covering the NBA and the Miami Heat. Follow him on Twitter.

 

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