Nothing Plastic in New Face of NBA

Now, he’s not just a pretty face, anymore.

You can’t even see LeBron’s face these days. In this, the season in which the hype was supposed to meet the reality, he’s going around in a plastic mask that makes him look more like the Phantom of the Opera than the Chosen One.

An elbow by Houston’s Dikembe Mutombo fractured his left cheekbone on Dec. 29, the day before he turned 20, knocking him out of the game after 17 scoreless minutes.

Until then, James was averaging 25 points, 7.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists, statistical levels only four players ever reached over a season. Their names were Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, and none of them did it when they were 20.

If you’re wondering how James turned out after all that hype, he’s not merely special. He’s way beyond that.

The most amazing statistic of all is 21-13. That’s the Cavaliers’ record after the Lakers beat them Thursday night.

The Cavaliers were 17-65 the season before James arrived and almost took them to the playoffs as a rookie. Then they lost Carlos Boozer and now James has them second in the East.

We’re not talking about a mere phenom here.

“That’s the reason there’s a word called ‘anomaly,’ ” says Seattle’s Ray Allen. “He had a great rookie year but, I think, most people come into the NBA, they look at it as, ‘I got my money in my pocket, I’m going to have some of the best tennis shoes on my feet, everybody’s going to be watching, I’m going to be on TV night in and night out.

“I think he expected that, he’s welcomed it and it’s almost like, when he’s walking and the camera’s behind, he doesn’t pay attention to it. He is who he is, but basketball just seems to be his main concern.”

It’s hard to think of a young man wearing a headband, whose likeness can be seen karate-kicking a foe in a Nike commercial (parents can just be thankful the script didn’t have him shoot anyone), as old school, but James is.

“He’s a throwback to the guys that understand, that love to play,” Coach Paul Silas said before Thursday’s game.

“I didn’t think I’d see it this soon. I knew it was there, but I didn’t know he would grasp the understanding of the game as he has. After that one year of experience that he has, he understands the offense, the defense, rotations. All the things he did not know as a rookie, he understands now.

“And his confidence is at an all-time high. ‘Cause he does understand everything. He knows when to take over, give it up, to keep everybody happy....

“I saw it about three-quarters of the way through the season. We run this baseline screen and he would always pop out to the wing and he started curling in the lane, making it tough on everybody. And I had been prodding him to do that all season, and all of a sudden, I looked out and there and, boy, he’s got it, you know?

“And everything just started to fall in place. This season he was just so confident and so elated that he knew what to do, and the rest is history right now.”

Of course, as local fans are aware, the game isn’t the only problem. There’s the life, but James still seems to have his together. Hyped as no rookie ever was, he handled the press crush easily, with an other-worldly poise. Meanwhile, Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, who broke in with him and was even said by some to be better, spent his first off-season fighting the law and the law won.

Don’t expect to hear too many more peers compared to James again, not even Miami’s Dwyane Wade.

It’s not that the trip didn’t get to him. In high school, he was heard yelling “King James!” on dunks and alternated between Nike and Adidas sneakers to encourage both companies. Then there was the day he drove up to St. Vincent-St. Mary High in that $50,000 Hummer.

Yes, there’s still some little boy in there, thrilled to find himself matched against Kobe Bryant.

“It’s still sometimes overwhelming to come out and play against guys that you pretty much grew up watching,” James said. “It’s unbelievable to know that this is like Kobe’s eighth or ninth year in the league. Seems like yesterday, he was just getting drafted.”

When Bryant was drafted in 1996, James was 11.

Of course, before Bryant won his first NBA title in 2000 at 21, James, starting as a freshman at age 14, won the first of his three Ohio state titles. By his junior year, when LeBron was 17, he was such a prodigy, Sports Illustrated had him on its cover billed as “The Chosen One.”

If James entered the league with a grown-up’s body at 6-7, 240, he didn’t have the eye-popping explosion of Bryant or Jordan. What James did have, however, was a Magic Johnson-type feel for the game and a Magic-Michael-Kobe work ethic.

Watching him as a high school senior on SVSM’s “Fantastic Scholastic Tour” one night in the Palestra, Sonny Hill, who runs the famous summer Charles Baker League, said, “I’d tell him what I told Kobe -- go get me a big-time jump shot.”

James was in and out as an NBA rookie, shooting 42%, 29% on three-pointers. Then he went home and got him a big-time jump shot.

“I was trying to make at least 200, 250 shots a day,” he said. “Threes, inside the three-point line, pull-ups. That can take you 500 shots to make 250.”

How long does that take?

“Two hours, two and a half hours.”

Every day?

“That’s pretty much every day. I take Sundays off.”

Now he’s shooting 49% and 35% on threes.

Thursday’s night’s matchup with Bryant fizzled when Kobe was hurt. James filled up another stat sheet with 28 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, in vain.

On the other hand, James says he is just starting out.

“I got a lot more left,” he said. “I’m still getting better.”

It can’t be, but it is.