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INDEPENDENCE, Ohio – Nobody will be there, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown thought as he left the house early one morning last May.
It was a few days after Cleveland’s disappointing season ended with a bitter Game 7 loss on Boston’s famed parquet floor and it was down time. The Cavs had dispersed to Cancun, the French Riviera and other vacation spots.
Brown was headed to the team’s training compound with his son, Elijah. Time for some father-son bonding with nobody around but security guards.
But as the Browns walked in the door, the lights were on in the gym. And as they neared the courts, they heard the thump, thump, thump of a basketball.
One Cavalier stayed home.
LeBron James was back at work.
A life lesson diagrammed like an inbounds play in front of him, Brown turned to his impressionable boy.
“I said, ‘See, LeBron doesn’t just show up at the games with his Superman outfit on,’ ” Brown recalled. “He works harder than anyone. That’s why he’s LeBron.”
And since that day, James, the NBA’s most unstoppable force, hasn’t stopped working.
And if his play in Cleveland’s first-round playoff obliteration of Detroit is any indication – he almost averaged a triple-double in the four-game sweep – James will settle for nothing less than winning everything.
“The goal since day one has been a championship,” James said. “Nothing less.”
James stormed off the court in Boston last year. He was disgusted. Never again, James promised himself.
His 45-point performance in Game 7, overshadowed by Paul Pierce’s 41 in the Celtics’ win, wasn’t enough to get the Cavaliers back to the finals. The team had underachieved and never gelled after general manager Danny Ferry’s roster overhaul at the trading deadline.
James needed help, and at the postgame news conference he indirectly ordered Ferry to get him some.
“We need to continue to get better,” James said as Ferry stood in the back of the room. “If that means some personnel changes that need to happen, then so be it.”
James then set out to change himself.
He took two days off and then was right back at Cleveland’s training facility. The Beijing Olympics were looming, and if a championship ring wasn’t in his cards, he was getting that gold medal.
Cavaliers assistant coach Chris Jent remembers a more determined look in James’ eyes during those workouts.
“He was so locked in,” Jent said. “His concentration was different than anything I had ever seen before. He was just, I don’t know, different.”
James got serious about weightlifting and developed a program he has stuck to this season. He lifts for up to 30 minutes before each game and has added at least 10 pounds of muscle. He also added yoga to his routine.
With Jent’s help, James began reconstructing his jump shot. He spent five days a week, two hours per session, refining his outside shot, still the weakest area of his game. James finished the regular season shooting a career-high 49 percent.
Fans “just see the fantastic plays and his God-given ability,” Jent said. “They don’t understand that there were kinks in the armor and he wanted to figure them out. He wanted to straighten them out and he wanted to be better and the only way to do it is by working.
“When things are going good he works, and when things are bad, he works harder.”
Mo Williams had his doubts.
Acquired in a trade last summer from Milwaukee, the point guard didn’t know Cleveland’s star well. As an outsider, he appreciated James’ awesome talents but wondered whether there was substance behind the style.
Now, he knows.
“It surprised me,” Williams said. “I knew he was good, but you always want to get around somebody who is great and see how they go about their business. I know how hard I work. His drive and work ethic are off the charts.”
James’ passion to play has rubbed off on the Cavaliers.
After practice, this tight-knit team of gym rats practices more.
“We enjoy each other’s company and it shows,” James said. “Nobody wants to go home.”
