Mike Brown reflects on LeBron James about to set new career milestone: “It’s bulls**t…He’s not afraid to do it”
LeBron James has continued to be doubted ever since he joined the league as a teenager fresh out of high school. With the eyes of the world on him, James faced plenty of pressure when he first joined the league. He knew that despite his nerves, once the game got underway, he would find his rhythm.
In his 20 seasons played, James has certainly found that rhythm. It didn't take long for him to make his presence felt in the NBA. As a superhuman athlete with explosive leaping abilities, LeBron James has been a nightmare matchup for defenders.
As a young player with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was able to bully smaller defenders. At the same time, when opposing teams attempted to switch a big man onto James to keep him out of the paint, he would leave them in the dust with his speed.
Despite his dominance as a scoring threat throughout his career, however, James has always described himself as a pass-first player. As he approaches Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's regular season scoring record, his past coaches have weighed in on the narrative that he passes up big shots. His first coach, Mike Brown, told NBA.com:
"It’s bull—-. He’s a basketball player that knows how to win championships and lead his team. More importantly, he knows how to make the right play. You can have a lot of disgruntled teammates if you don’t know how, or choose not to make the right play at the right time.
"We wouldn’t have advanced against Washington (in the 2006 NBA playoffs) if he didn’t hit Damon Jones for a wide-open jumper in the left corner. Stuff like that not only won us games, it won us playoff series and brought our team closer together."
Tyron Lue shoots down narrative that LeBron James is too unselfish
The fact that many have criticized LeBron James for opting to pass to wide-open teammates in crunch time rather than taking a poor-quality shot is astounding. As James and many others have stated in the past, his game is based around winning matches.
Time and time again, we have seen LeBron James take over a game early-on to force the defense to double him. As soon as they do, he begins to get his teammates involved. Similarly, we've also seen James get his teammates involved early, so that he can then work his magic and leave the defense trying to figure out what to do.
The way Ty Lou sees things, regardless of any potential criticism regarding his pass-first style, he's still put up impressive scoring numbers.
"He’s still averaged 28 points a game [laughs]. People are always going to try to critique his game. But some things are ridiculous. The man averaged 28 points a game (during his career). I don’t get it. He knows when to turn it up and turn it on and when to get guys involved and get guys shots. He’s mastered that."
As we approach James breaking the scoring record, do you think the narrative of him being too unselfish has been put to bed?
Above, you can see some of LeBron James' best plays from 2010-2020.