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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > December > 13
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Hawks forgot to roll out King’s welcome
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When LeBron James walked into Madison Square Garden two-and-a-half weeks ago and introduced the deranged, $140 sneaker-buying corner of the world to his new candy apple red, Big Apple Nike Zoom LeBron 6’s, most viewed it as foreshadowing.
The shoes arrived in 2008.
The rest of him gets there in 2010.
“Funny — everybody knows what I’m going to do except me,” James said Saturday.
OK, so maybe this obsession with where James will earn his next max contract is a bit much. Even online sports books have posted odds. Cleveland is a slight favorite at 6-5 over New York (5-2). The Hawks are 50-1. The odds would have dropped Saturday, but, alas, he didn’t show up at Philips Arena with the Big Peach Zoom 7s.
“Maybe next time,” he said, laughing.
Next time, maybe all the buildup won’t be for James and the visitors. We saw the good Hawks Saturday, the ones that can defend and play under control and, most importantly, play with the NBA’s elite.
This is how you open a homestand. After showing signs of backsliding following a 6-0 start, the Hawks — the initial roadkill in Cleveland’s 11-game winning streak — knocked the Cavaliers back a step with a 97-92 win. It doesn’t mean they’re nearly at the level of the Cavs, who at 20-4 can live with a setback. But this game did illustrate the Hawks’ upside.
“It was definitely a big win for us, especially coming against one of the top teams in the league,” said Mike Bibby, whose three-pointer with 2:19 left gave Atlanta a 92-90 lead. “I think this just showed how good we can be when we help each other defensively.”
James. He wore normal shoes and finished with a relatively pedestrian (for him) 33 points. Fans expecting him to take over the game instead saw a strong defensive effort from several Hawks, including Marvin Williams, who played against James in high school in AAU tournaments.
“Just physically, he’s a tough dude to stop,” Williams said. “You take someone like Dwyane Wade, who’s 6-4 and can run and jump and dunk. But LeBron is 6-9, 250, 260 doing the same thing. It’s scary.”
The Cavaliers are where the Hawks want to be. They started the season 1-2, then won 19 of their next 20. They suddenly defend as well as anybody. They have added Mo Williams.
But James is remains the centerpiece, of this team and this league. He is redefining the game. He is the youngest and fastest player ever to 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals, 300 blocks. Michael Jordan had been the fastest. Kobe Bryant had been the youngest.
“This is the most fun I’ve had since being a part of the Cavs organization,” James said before the game.
It hasn’t all been fun. The Knicks/free agency speculation has spun out of control, and James is partly to blame. No, he couldn’t control what people thought when New York cleared salary cap space, and fans and media immediately projected him as a Knick in 2010. But it was James who chose to crash Gotham like a blowtorch. He landed in New York, launched the red shoes and said nothing in press conferences to defuse the situation.
Charles Barkley, the former player turned free-speaking analyst, didn’t like it. “If I was LeBron James, I would shut the hell up,” Barkley blasted, saying James disrespected the game, his teammates and Cleveland fans.
Barkley had a point.
James didn’t think so. His response: “He’s stupid.”
Didn’t even use the whole 24 seconds.
“My teammates know I have to go through so much talking about free agency and everything,” James said. “I think they get tired of hearing that and they want to go out and prove people wrong. I just go out and do my job. I don’t care what people say about me or what they think my future is before I even know what it is.”
For now, he’s with the Cavs, who remain at a level the Hawks aspire to. For one night, James was just north of mortal, and the Hawks looked like Cleveland’s equal.
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