Sport
LeBron James and Miami Heat are champions
“He does the right thing,” Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “When he makes the right pass and the guy misses the shot, he’s criticized. When he forces a shot in a double team, he’s criticized. It’s the way it is for him, for whatever reason. He’s competitive as heck. He’s one of the most powerful players to ever play the game. And maybe it isn’t enough. I don’t know.”
Rivers said he thinks only one athlete might be able to relate to what James has to deal with, Tiger Woods.
“Tiger over the last two or three years,” Rivers said. “Other than that, no one. No athlete that I can ever remember being under the scrutiny, definitely in basketball. I’ve never seen anyone under the scrutiny that LeBron James is under.”
So in these playoffs, instead of trying to defeat the scrutiny or use it as fuel, James tried to ignore it as much as he could.
He turned his phones off. Literally, off. And they stayed off. When the NBA tried to send word that he won the MVP award, James wasn’t reachable. The message eventually got to Mims, who delivered the news.
“I can’t remember being as nervous with a message,” Mims said.
No phone calls. No tweeting. He didn’t watch much television. Instead of reading articles about himself or the playoffs, he was reading books, something that became part of his pregame ritual. He would sit at his locker, usually with headphones on, pregame snack of a meal-replacement bar next to him, and flip through a few pages. (“It slows my mind down,” James said.)
