“Oh yeah, that’s out,” Wade said.
“I was 0-for-2. I told him I would throw him a lob, and we’d win.”
I understand James not wanting to do the Slam Dunk contest. It isn’t his thing. He’s said it many times before. It’s not his style. He excels at in-game, rim-rattling power dunks.
The 3-Point contest isn’t his thing, either. Plus, it takes a lot of practice to adjust to grabbing those balls off a ball rack as opposed to shooting off the dribble, which James usually does on his 3s.
Maybe he could do the Skills contest.
It doesn’t require a lot of practice. He’d have nothing to lose. No one doubts his Magic Johnson-like skills. And it’d create a huge buzz for a Saturday schedule of events that, let’s admit it, fluctuates greatly between entertaining and unwatchable.
Whatever the case, James shouldn’t be forced to do anything through media pressure, public pressure or anything else. It’s his choice. He’ll already have a busy weekend.
I can understand wanting to relax a bit on All-Star Saturday. I can understand not wanting to practice dunks or 3-point shooting in the days leading up to the event.
But James is almost invincible right now.
He has his title, and the NBA’s viewing public has restored his Most Favored Player status. So it might not be a bad idea for James to return that appreciation and give the All-Star Saturday event a boost.
James, as he noted, has been giving ever since he joined the Heat during that frenzied Summer of 2010 free agent rush.
In this age of selfish athletes who always seem to be concerned about how much money they’re making, James took less than the maximum contract to play for the Miami Heat.
You probably know the story.
Back in the summer of 2010, the newly-assembled Big Three, at Wade’s urging, all took less than max deals so the Heat could afford to re-sign power forward Udonis Haslem.
Now, James finds himself as the league’s 13th-highest paid player.
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“I’ll sacrifice for the team, if it has to do with money, if it has to do with shot attempts, whatever the case may be,” James said.
Of course, it should be noted it’s easy to sacrifice salary when you make about $40 million a year in endorsements, which, according to Forbes Magazine, is what James made last year.
Still, it’s an unselfish gesture.
It’d be nice to see another one by James on All-Star Saturday Night.
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Chris Perkins is a veteran Miami-based sports journalist who covers the Miami Heat for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.