In Short Time, James Is Making Like a Star

There’s a time for him. It’s just not quite yet.

Even here, where rivers burn and football teams playing to sellout crowds leave, hope survives. So it seemed not just right but perfect when their new, shining knight, burdened for the first time with his own disappointment, went up at the end of a tie game against the mighty Lakers to redeem himself, his downtrodden team and his much-scorned community and hit nothing but ...

Floor?

Yes, there are wonderful things ahead for LeBron James, who’s 19 and may be 40 the next time he misses an All-Star team. However, even the phenom of phenoms has dues to pay and pratfalls to take, as he did Wednesday, when he scored 32 points but airballed the potential game-winner at the end of regulation before his Cavaliers fell in overtime, 111-106.

“The ball was right on line,” said James, positive as ever. “It just fell short. I felt confident when I let it go. When I looked at it going through the air, it looked good. It just fell short, that’s all.”

Yeah, like three feet short, but it can’t all be a stroll over rose petals.

With James going up like a rocket and reviving not only the Cavaliers but the league’s TV ratings, the hope that LeBron would be named to the All-Star team seemed to turn into a certainty here.

This, of course, just made it harder on them when the team was announced Tuesday and James wasn’t on it.

That night, James scored 12 points in a victory at Detroit, missing 14 of 19 shots. Coach Paul Silas said he thought the All-Star stuff was weighing on LeBron.

James, who never admits to duress or disappointment, said this was no biggie. Suggesting the opposite, however, for once he didn’t say the right things, adding that if he were to be invited as an injury replacement, he wouldn’t go.

“I’m an only child,” James said. “I never want to be picked second. I don’t come second. That’s just the way I feel.”

It was a different James on Wednesday night. He scored 11 points in the first quarter, looking as if he were going for a huge number to show all those coaches who left him off the All-Star team how wrong they were.

The Cavaliers, who had gone 13-10 since starting 6-19, led by 10 points in the third quarter. However, the Lakers were back up to two future Hall of Famers, Shaquille O’Neal and Gary Payton, both were having big nights and they caught up.

At 92-92, with five seconds left, James got the ball with Payton on him. Teammate Carlos Boozer set a screen, but Payton, seeing it, forced James to go left, away from Boozer.

James prefers going right for his shot, but with the final seconds running off the clock, he had no choice but to go to his off-hand and let fly.

The Lakers then scored the first six points of overtime and won going away, even as James made three three-pointers.

No, there aren’t many 19-year-olds, less than a year out of high school, like this one.

When the season started, Silas figured James would be averaging something like 15 points, five rebounds and five assists by the All-Star break. The actual numbers are 20.9, 5.8 and 5.9.

Silas also said there would be a time when James would come to him for help. That hasn’t happened either.

“No, thank God,” said Silas before the game, laughing. “I thought he would be like hitting a wall right around now, where fatigue is setting in and his numbers are going to go down. It just hasn’t happened. Hasn’t happened yet and hopefully, it won’t....

“I think he’s only scratched the surface so far. ‘Cause he’s not a mature player yet and he’s putting up these kind of numbers and helping us win. In the future, he might make me a pretty good coach.”

Then there’s the money everyone is reaping. The Cavaliers’ attendance, No. 29 last season, is up almost 6,000 a game, which could mean an extra

$10 million in revenue. They’re the No. 2 road draw, behind the Lakers.

“Winning is everything,” James said. “The crowds recognize that. We’re starting to win so they’re starting to come. We do our job and they’re gonna do their job. I thank them a lot for this year. They’ve brought the intensity back to Cleveland, the way that it needed to be.”

They’re just getting started. James is happening faster than anyone imagined, but happily for the Lakers, they made it in and out of town one more time and it didn’t happen to them.