Wednesday, May 30, 2007

lebron is getting better...

Okay, Lebron is starting to grow on me. After bailing on his team by not being agressive in games 1 & 2 against Detroit, he's stepped it up like the go-to guy he needs to be. And that dunk on Rasheed in Game 3? Wow. And he knows when to pay tribute to those who came before him:

James was fouled, and Cleveland’s superstar - whose poor free-throw shooting has been one of his only flaws - calmly knocked down both foul shots to make it 91-87 with four seconds remaining.

As James was preparing to shoot, Hamilton walked up and tried to rattle him with a few words - just as James had done to Washington's Gilbert Arenas in the playoffs last season.

"I invented that," James joked. "No, Scottie Pippen invented that with Karl Malone. He (Hamilton) tried to mess with me and I had to stay focused."


For the non-Bulls fans out there: In the 1997 NBA Finals, the Bulls were facing the Utah Jazz, led by John Stockton and Karl Malone. This is the series where Jordan had food poisoning, but still scored 38 points to win Game 5. The Bulls won the series 4 games to 2. But the Pippen reference Lebron referred to: A notable moment in game 1 was when Scottie Pippen told Karl Malone that "the mailman doesn't deliver on Sundays" while Malone was at the free throw line with a chance to take the lead at the end of the game. Chicago won that game 84-82.