This past Friday, we said this about LeBron James: "And as we saw late in the game against the Lakers, he has the tendency to miss crucial free throws down the stretch."
Basically, that was a polite way of saying LeBron's late game heroics may have been lacking.
As if on cue against Golden State late Friday night, LeBron hit the third game-winner of his career (according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst) after the most recent Race to the MVP hit the web. Some would attribute James' jumper as an answer to Hall of Famer Rick Barry, who criticized that same J as untrustworthy.
As you can imagine, LeBron's last-second heroics pleased Cavs fans on many levels.
You're welcome, Cavs fans. Actually, we should thank LeBron. With that last-second shot and his near triple-double in Cleveland's win over Utah on Saturday, King James' actions confirmed our words from Friday: no player in the league is playing better ball this season.
However, one pretty 20-foot game winner does not make LeBron's jumper any more reliable. On one level, I still agree with Barry as I did two years ago when I did a 15-minute segment with him and Rick Kamla every Wednesday on Sirius satellite radio. Even the great ones had areas in which they could improve. For LeBron, it's his jumper. There's no shame in saying that work needs to be done. The great ones, often perfectionists, work on those problem areas.
