LeBron James often recalls the afternoon he first picked up basketball when he was 9 years old. By then he had moved out of his grandmother's large, dilapidated Victorian house and was living with his mother in a rambling duplex in the Elizabeth Park slum settlement in lower Akron.
He remembers riding his bicycle from his home on a weekend in a southwesterly direction, where he could see the bell tower of Goodyear Tires, past Arlington Church, Bissell Baptist Church and Union Cars. company building, then past Akron Automated Screw Products, Rushes Market, Stewart and Calhoun Funeral Home, to Tomton Avenue, and finally to the Summit Lake Community Center on Crohill Street in southwest Akron - "Eastern The training base of the Dragon Children’s Rugby Club.
At the age of 9, LeBron has already shown quite amazing athletic talent. He is as fast as lightning, stronger than his peers, and has unlimited physical fitness. He plays the position of guard on the court. However, James seemed a little absent-minded during the morning training. During the confrontation training, he failed to complete several actions satisfactorily. Coach Bruce took James out to ask about the situation alone during lunch. James told Coach Bruce that because his mother could not afford the tuition and rent, he would probably drop out of school and have no fixed place to live.
Coach Bruce knew that James, like most black kids from Akron's slums, had a young mother but didn't know who his father was. It was not easy for a young black girl in her 20s to support a boy. At noon, Coach Bruce discussed with other coaches on the team and informed everyone about James' situation. This group of young but loyal bachelor coaches were willing to help and let James live at home and live together. But they are just hot-headed. When they calm down, they realize that singles like them can't even take care of their own lives, how can they support a 9-year-old child?
In the afternoon, James wandered around the training center with heavy thoughts, like a deer calf lost in the jungle. In addition to the football field, there are tennis courts, swimming pools, basketball halls and an outdoor basketball court next door.
Several kids about the same age as James, 8-10 years old, were playing games on the court. Coach Frankie Walker was holding a whistle in his mouth when he saw LeBron standing in front of the barbed wire and watching. He knew this Eastern Dragons football player. The little star of the team blew the whistle at him and joked: "LeBron, you can't make it on the football team. Do you want to try basketball?"
James shook his head quickly. He was still a very shy child at that time. He smiled and said nothing, but his eyes and expression could not hide the deep worry in his heart.
Frankie Walker saw that he was hiding bad emotions, so he pulled him to the basketball court, formed a team with the children who were playing, and played a simple competition.
"I...I'm not very good at playing basketball." James hesitated. His previous dream had always been to become a football superstar. His idols were Deron Sanders and Eric Mitcalf, so he The jersey numbers he wears are all No. 21. For basketball, he only knew Michael Jordan. At that time, Jordan had completed his three consecutive championships and officially announced his retirement.
"Try it. Basketball is very simple. Just dribble and put the ball into the basket." Frankie Walker encouraged James. He wanted to see if James had any talent for playing basketball.
James nodded and decided to give it a try. He was placed in a group with four other children, including Frankie Walker's son Frankie Walker II. Then on the first offense, he rushed down to the basket. He caught the ball and made a layup with his left hand. He is so fast that the people guarding him can't keep up. After all, this guy comes from a rugby background.
But Frankie Walker blew the whistle and said to James with a smile: "This is a good layup, but you walked. Basketball and football are different."
But James quickly adapted to a basketball game with simpler rules and more emphasis on personal abilities, and easily scored high scores. After the training game, Frankie Walker asked him if he wanted to try to join the basketball team or double major in football and basketball. Which path would he choose in the future?
James told him at the time, "I can't think about this for the time being. I am about to drop out of school and have no place to live. Not to mention basketball, I may not be able to play football."
Only then did Frankie Walker realize where the anxiety and sadness in little LeBron's eyes came from. After discussing with the coaches of the Eastern Dragons, Frankie Walker said that James could stay at his home and complete his studies. , while participating in the training of the football and basketball teams. After seeking his mother's advice, LeBron James separated from his mother in the fifth grade and stayed at coach Frankie Walker's home. He said goodbye to the days of always moving and having no fixed place, and began a period of studying, studying, and living. A stable life of training.
Whenever he recalled this time many years later, James would lament that basketball changed his destiny that afternoon. He wondered if Frankie Walker would still be willing to take him in if he had not shown enough talent on the basketball court. Own? After all, there are countless black boys wandering around and living on the streets in Akron. If he wasn't talented in sports, how could Coach Walker have the heart to help him.
From then on, he quickly chose basketball between football and basketball, not only because he showed more talent on the basketball court, but also because he found that the 5vs5 basketball court was more conducive to showing his personal strength. The football team has too many people, the tactics are too complicated, and the power of individuals is limited. On the basketball court, when a person is strong enough, he can become a god dominating the game.
After Frankie Walker, he met the second most important basketball coach in his life, Drew Joyce II. LeBron James joined the basketball team he formed and began participating in national amateur basketball competitions when LeBron James was 12 years old. In order to raise funds for traveling to the national competition, they sold a tape door-to-door and used the money they earned to buy equipment, thus raising all the expenses for the trip.
They won more than 40 of more than 60 games along the way, and finally reached the finals in Salt Lake City through the qualifiers. This experience allowed LeBron to start to emerge on the national basketball stage and become a basketball player that attracted the attention of many people. Future Stars - Of course, there are many similar future stars in this age group, and James is not the most conspicuous one. Even in their own team, James is not the boss.
The real boss of the team is Drew Jr. - Coach Drew's son, a short but hot-tempered and extremely competitive guard. LeBron James is stronger than him. He can always beat Drew Jr. in one-on-one duels, but Drew never admits defeat and will keep playing until James says he can't play anymore. He is fierce and decisive on the court. When anyone wants to act wild in the game, Drew will stand up for his teammates.
That’s why teammates call Drew “General”. He is the soul of the team, a person who can stabilize the morale of the military.
Of course, his talent is much lower than that of James. As they grow older, the gap in height and skills between the two becomes wider and wider. When James became a nationally renowned superstar, Drew Jr. had no chance of playing professional basketball. They studied and played together at St. Vincent and St. Mary High School, where James gained national fame. His talent and playing style attracted national attention, and he began to be shaped step by step towards the position of "god".
That is the throne that James has always longed for when he chose basketball. It belongs to the first throne of basketball players.
But this road was harder than he imagined. The higher he climbed, the more lonely and helpless he felt. Every time at this time, he would always miss Little Drew, the "general" who stood in front of him in everything. If If he always has a general like this, will it be easier for him to climb to that coveted throne? Or maybe it would be great if he could hit that free throw in the third game of the 2012 Finals. As long as there is one championship, even one, everything will definitely be completely different...
"LeBron? LeBron!"
James was pulled out of his flash of memories by a shout.
At this moment, he is sitting in the home team's locker room at Oracle Arena. It is halftime at the end of the Western Conference Finals tiebreaker.
Steve Kerr looked at James' somewhat confused expression and felt anxious. He yelled for James three times in a row before he recovered from his fugue, and then looked at Kerr with blank eyes.
"LeBron, in the second half, we need your breakthrough. Drive inside like a knife and pierce the opponent! Pierce the opponent!"
"I know." James responded lightly. He felt that there was a breath in his heart, and he was depressed there. He wanted to mention it but couldn't.
"You have to attack more by yourself. I asked you to be the ball handler at the No. 1 position, just to let you attack more and dominate the game. If we win this game, we will be the championship!"
Cole's tone was very anxious. It was difficult for him to control his emotions. From being chased from 1:3 to a 3:3 tie, anyone would be unbalanced, let alone facing the Clippers and Smart Min.
Cole's anxiety seemed to ignite James, and he suddenly shouted: "We have obviously changed our style of play this season! I have changed! Why do I still need to control the situation! So what are the changes I have made this season!"
Cole looked at James with wide eyes. He did not expect James to refute him like this. Cole fired back: "This is when you should respond! You have the ability and the responsibility!"
James said: "This is not my team alone. Everyone is playing on the court. I always give the ball to the right person, in the right position, and make the right offensive choice. I have always been like that. !”
"So you can't beat the LA Clippers all this time!"
Cole finally couldn't help roaring, but this sentence undoubtedly hurt morale and hurt James.
James pursed his lips and said nothing for a long time, and finally squeezed out a sentence through his teeth, "You can't defeat Smart either."
The head coach and the general were hurting each other in the locker room, while Kevin Durant, Thompson, Lillard and others remained silent.
Only Draymond Green stood up to mediate and asked everyone to stop arguing and focus all their energy on the game and win the tiebreaker.
But there was inevitable division within the Warriors, and everyone felt strange in their hearts. The moment they stepped onto the court again, the hustle and bustle of the Oracle Arena highlighted the psychological weakness of the Warriors players.
Of course, their bodies are also very tired, very tired.
Each of the seven games in the series is a high-intensity, high-intensity confrontation.
The four overtimes in the fourth game almost exhausted the physical and mental strength of the main players.
Game 5 was their best chance to win the series, but they failed to grasp it, and now the initiative is no longer in their hands.
In comparison, the Clippers' Randolph, Jokic, and Dragic on the bench all played relatively short minutes in the first four games, and they all have sufficient physical fitness.
At the beginning of the third quarter, the Clippers started with a 7-0 offensive shock wave. Curry broke through and scored consecutively, forcing the Warriors' defense to shrink, and Leonard hit another three-pointer from the outside.
The momentum of the Clippers is getting stronger and stronger, swallowing up the heavy-footed warriors like wind and clouds. After a futile halftime brawl, the Warriors no longer knew how to play.
Is it for James? Or to Durant? Or they may play pass and cut in a down-to-earth manner, but the Clippers' defense is impregnable and there is no chance at all. Their passing has become slow, their movement has become clumsy, their concentration has become unfocused, their defense has begun to lack intensity, and victories are slipping away from their hands.
By the end of the third quarter, the score between the two sides had reached 65:51, and the Clippers led the Warriors by 14 points.
With such a score difference, it is very difficult to reverse a comeback in a game of this level.
The last such example was in the 2000 Western Conference Finals. Even though the Lakers led 3:1, they were chased by the Trail Blazers 3:3 in the tiebreaker.
Before the start of the fourth quarter, the Trail Blazers led the Lakers by 13 points and were sure of victory, but in the end the OK combination completed a shocking reversal and entered the finals to start the Lakers dynasty.
It can be said that although the Lakers dynasty is great, the two Western Conference Finals were thrilling and even full of controversy. If there was a slight difference, the three consecutive championships would not be established.
Therefore, the Lakers' three consecutive championships are also full of luck.
And this time, Min Congda will never allow the same thing to happen to the Clippers.
In the fourth quarter, the Clippers did not enter a passive defense situation. It was just like a football game. Some teams started to play conservatively after leading by one goal, replacing the forwards with defenders. As a result, they were scored by their opponents as soon as they made the substitution, and they had no offensive power. The initiative of the game was completely controlled by the opponent, and the game was lost in the end.
Min Congda still asked the team to attack with all their strength, especially when the Warriors once again changed to a five-small lineup and let Green play the center. Min Congda asked Jokic to continue to attack the Warriors inside and cooperate with Curry's pick-and-roll.
Jokic deserves to have the potential of a superstar. As a rookie, he showed no mercy in such a crucial game. He made consecutive hits in the fourth quarter. As long as he caught the ball and threw the ball under the basket, he would hit it - he was not so accurate in daily training.
After Jokic scored a 2+1, he has already scored 21 points in this game. Among these 21 points, he dribbled no more than 5 times. All of them were played high and directly attacked with a dribble. , without any sloppiness, penetrated the Warriors' inside line.
The Warriors launched a final counterattack at the end of the fourth quarter, like a dying beast. Durant, Thompson, and James all hit consecutive three-pointers.
The score once reached 81:76. With one minute left in the game, the Warriors relied on Durant's three-pointer to close the gap to only 5 points.
The Clippers called a timeout, and Min Congda deployed an Eagle tactic, but after returning from the timeout, the play was not successful. Leonard's mid-range shot did not hit.
During the counterattack, Durant caught the ball and went straight to the basket, but Butler knocked the ball away from behind for a layup! Out of bounds.
The Warriors took a sideline ball, James caught the ball, suddenly accelerated to the basket, and dunked with both hands!
81:78, the Warriors are only 3 points behind! There are still 30 seconds left before the end of the game.
The Warriors have a chance to turn around and rely on the players' personal abilities to change their fate!
The Clippers put the responsibility of the key attack on Curry's shoulders. He had the opportunity to make a fatal hit and win the game.
But after the double screen, the Warriors Curry double-teamed, and Curry had to jump up and pass the ball to Butler.
Butler broke through from the center and made a throw to the basket. The ball spun around the basket and fell out.
LeBron James got a backcourt rebound, Steve Kerr didn't call a timeout, and James dribbled the ball through half court.
He had a chance to be the hero, but he passed the ball to Kevin Durant, who broke through to the right.
The Clippers also chose to double team - but this was not a good defensive choice. They should have allowed two points instead of three.
Durant passed the ball to Green on the outside, and Green passed the ball to James at the top of the key.
James is actually empty in front of him. He has a perfect three-point chance!
James only scored 14 points tonight. This was his chance to save the Warriors and himself.
But at this moment, he was still hesitating in his heart, should he vote? Can it be made?
At this time, a familiar voice suddenly sounded in his ears, as if coming from the Clippers bench on the sidelines:
"Shoot! (shoot)!"
It seems to be Smart. Is it Smart?
At that moment, he seemed to be hit by this word, and fell to the ground like a buffalo that was hit in the wilderness. The surrounding light gradually disappeared as the outline of his eyes closed, and the overwhelming crows flapped their wings from unknown dark corners. There are so many of them that they can't be counted. You will never see them on a normal day. But once the corpses appear, they come from the darkness, as if they are the darkness. The darkness is not a whole, but one by one like crows. Particles that can gather and disperse are a kind of corrupt smell molecule that heralds danger.
His mind flashed back to the afternoon when he first touched basketball. On the basketball court at the Summit Lake Community Center on Crohill Street, he received a pass from his teammate like a running back and put the ball in with his left hand. In the basket - yes, he is actually a left-hander, but in the end he changed to shooting with his right hand, which always made his shots look a bit awkward. It took him practice after practice to adapt the muscle memory of shooting with a hand that was not supposed to be responsible for shooting. This lasted for more than two decades and will continue to do so, just as he and those around him want to use him to shoot. Sending that throne, he also longed for that throne, but he didn't seem to have thought about whether it didn't belong to him in the first place? It was not the place he should go, nor was it a place where he could truly be happy, strong, and achieve himself?
That afternoon, he and his team lost the game. Later, they also lost the game in the AAU finals. The rancid smell of failure breeds the fear of death in the dark depths of people's hearts. This is the darkness brought about by the cry of the owl in the twilight forest or a dead rat that has been devoured by ants until only its body is left. It is a kind of darkness that actually does not exist. The darkness that exists in people's daily experiences today but is hidden in ancient memories ensures that they are not lost in the fear of death. James suddenly realized this in his mind. He knew everything. Time became extremely slow. He discovered the hitherto undiscovered eternal realm between the three-point line and the basket. The distance of 23.75 feet is the distance between time and space. The long river that is difficult to cross connects the human world and the underworld.
He felt like he could barely move, letting time fly away from him, the discarded part of him riding down the Akron roads, Tomton Avenue, Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home, Roush Market, Akron Automated Screw Products, United Motors Building, Bissell Baptist Church, Arlington Church, Goodyear Tire bell tower...
"Shoot!"
"Ping!"
A bullet fired from an unknown dark corner in Akron's chaotic streets hit the 9-year-old. He fell to the ground in a cluster of red brick apartment buildings with red-framed windows on Copley Avenue, Akron's main thoroughfare. In the shadows, just one street away from Elizabeth Park. Red blood flowed out in a gush, contrasting with the red brick wall. He was like a buffalo that had been knocked down and could never stand up again.
The cold voice of the TV commentator came from the void:
"LeBron James took a three-point shot and missed. Leonard grabbed the backboard. The game is over, the game is over."
(End of chapter)
