Miami Heat: LeBron James Is ‘Still Getting Better’

LeBron James pretty much made the NBA his own playground in 2012-13.(Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com)

In the 2012-13 season LeBron James was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player (fourth time in five years) and the NBA Finals MVP (two years running) as he led his team to back-to-back NBA championships and shot 56 percent from the field. Yet he says he is “still getting better.”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds a little scary to me.

At 6’8” and –“officially”– 250 pounds, the 28-year-old is as fast as a point guard, as athletic as a swingman and as strong as a center. Honestly, I think he is the best athlete in the world. No one on the planet at that size moves as quickly as he does nor are they as nimble. The closest person I can think of is Usain Bolt, although he is about three inches shorter and nearly 40 pounds lighter.

But for all his freakish physical attributes, the biggest question in regards to LeBron James has always been his mental fragility. That’s how he earned himself the “LeChoke” moniker, just as he did in the 2007 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs and against the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

During this year’s NBA Finals, history nearly repeated itself as San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich rattled James somewhat when he told his players to take a step back; thus daring him to shoot from the outside. That threw him off his game a little and he began forcing things, resulting in his team being in a 2-1 hole early on.

However, as the series progressed, King James began to let the game come to him and he was looking more and more like the guy who averaged 40.6 percent from 3-point range during the regular season. And in perhaps the sweetest revenge possible, LeBron James broke all black-and-white hearts as he stepped up to close Game 7 with 37 points; most of them coming through a barrage of mid-range and outside shots.

The only award currently missing from his collection is the Defensive Player of the Year award, but don’t let that fool you, LeBron James is a great defender. At least that’s what his five selections to the NBA All-Defensive First Team would suggest.

Thanks to his quickness and great awareness, James has a career average of 1.8 steals per game and his 0.8 blocks stat is somewhat misleading because he is an outstanding shot blocker.

Exhibit A.

And thanks to his size, speed and leaping ability as well as his determination, James has earned himself a bit of a reputation as a chase-down artist. So much so that opponents are often wary of his whereabouts on fast breaks.

Exhibit B.

Despite not going to college, he already has an excellent basketball IQ and he sees everything around him. That is the reason why he was in the top 10 in assists for the sixth time in his career last year. (Per Basketballreference.com)

Sure the media does tend to hype James up somewhat but truth be told, he genuinely is that good. Nonetheless, he still needs to add a wider range of post moves to his game and improve his shooting consistency, especially at the free- throw line, where he is a career 74 percent shooter. Then again I have no doubt he will do so.

That’s because LeBron James may already be best basketball player on the planet, but that does not mean his work ethic has wavered. Heck, less than a week after the NBA Finals, James was already itching for the season to get going again.

Instead he will have to settle for offseason pickup games and refining his already pronounced game because he is a basketball and work out junkie. I guess it’s that kind of drive and determination that currently has him in the greatest of all time conversation.

After all, as Tim Duncan once said: “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.”