Until recently, watching LeBron James play professional basketball whilst wearing a headband was the norm. The sun rises, Antarctica is freezing, Chuck Norris kicks major patookie and LeBron wears a headband. These are the facts of life.
This all started — games ago, when James decided to forgo donning his identifying piece of apparel for an entire game against the Dallas Mavericks. Prior to that, he’d only ever taken off his headband for stretches of games.
LeBron's played parts of games w/o a headband in career. To my knowledge, this is 1st time he's started without it. Whatever that's worth.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) March 11, 2015
During those stretches, LeBron played some of the most dominating ball we’ve ever seen from him. A good example (and the most well known) is his headband-less domination of the San Antonio Spurs back in Game 6 (a.k.a. The Headband Game) of the 2013 NBA Finals.
Need a refresher? Here:
Since that recent moment he decided to remove his headband, James hasn’t put it on since. And he’s been tearing teams apart mercilessly at the helm of his Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s like if you’ve ever watched Dragon Ball Z. The characters in that show wear shirts, pants, waistbands (headbands?!), etc. that are all weighted. Once they remove them, they go crashing into the ground dramatically, raising a cloud of dust to show how much they really weigh. All of a sudden, the characters in the show can move like lightning and their power level increases tremendously.
That’s what we’re seeing with LeBron. It’s like he wears his headband to keep himself from accidentally annihilating the planet or something. It weighs him down and keeps his power level to a set output. And then when he needs to, he can rip the thing off and go full-blown Super Saiyan on your butt.
Have a look at the numbers.
In the three games James has played sans headband, he’s averaging 26.3 points, 9.3 assists, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game on 60.4 percent shooting from the field, 46.6 percent from deep and 73.6 percent from the foul line. All three of those games have been victories.
So why now? Shouldn’t he be saving this unique power for some more salient time? Like during a playoff series or the Finals themselves?
Well, the answer here may in fact be simple. LeBron is now 30 years old and, as we’ve seen this season, he is beginning to have a bit of a tussle with Father Time. Mortal holes are beginning to pop up in his seemingly immortal presence. He can even get injured now!
Perhaps James felt that he needs the extra boost. Now that he’s older, there’s no point in him holding back. It’s just like putting a pair of rockets on the back of your 2001 Toyota Corolla – if you don’t use them, eventually your car will fail you.
So why not? James has every right to use whatever means are at his disposal to reach that next, ungodly gear. He’s been through enough. It’s almost like a few years of wear and tear get flushed away when he takes his headband off.
Can you imagine if LeBron had played full games without it when he was, say, 24 or so? My goodness. The world might have ended.
All jests aside, the best part about all of this is that LeBron seems to suddenly be having fun again. He seems more focused somehow without his identifying mark. It even makes him look better; more aerodynamic at least.
One thing is for sure: LeBron James isn’t holding back, if he ever was. So strip off your headbands and get ready to rumble.
Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time
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