Posted on 11/07/2014 8:19:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
LeBron James isn't looking like LeBron James right now.
This may or may not mean anything. The Cleveland Cavaliers — who added LeBron, Kevin Love, Shawn Marion, and Mike Miller in the offseason — are in the embryonic stage of their development. Also, 80% of LeBron is better than pretty much every other player in the NBA.
But LeBron is definitely off. He hasn't been the overpowering physical force he was in Miami early in his second stint with the Cavaliers.
There are a wide variety of theories for why — age? weight loss? injury? master plan? — but no single explanation that the NBA world can agree on.
The evidence:
1. He's getting to the basket less and he's less effective once he gets there. LeBron took 49% of his shots at the rim last year and made 79.2% of those shots. This year he's taking 35% of his shots at the rim and making 53.8% of them.
2. 11.6% of his shots last year were dunks. This year 4% of his shots are dunks.
3. He got chased down by Gordon Hayward in the open court, somehow:
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Nice local kid, figured he was too "white" for the NBA, I was wrong....
Unless you are very careful with that kind of regimen, you lose muscle as well as fat.
Most of your muscle mass is in your legs - that's what makes a fast sprinter fast and gives a high jumper air.
Really? People are confused as to why this is happening? He dropped a bunch of weight, given that he didn’t really have any body fat most of it had to be muscle. He’s deliberately moving away from being a power forward, good for the long term of his career, but it’s a dramatic change of both body and game style. He’ll relearn his new position fine, the core skills are still there but it’s a big change and will take time. He’s not going to be a dunking machine anymore, he’s not going to be hanging around the rim, but by the all-star break he will have relearned and he’ll be stacking up the points.
Moochelle’s diet plan?
Too many conversations center around clinical situations or people when, in fact .. a whole slew of elements go into what happens.
Your explanation of changing positions and more importantly ... the body's development INTO a different physical routine is right on.
Thanx
What’s funny is that’s pretty much the analysis the basketball talking heads came up with when LeBron “unveiled” his new skinny non-power forward body a few months ago... and that they all seem to have forgotten they gave as they now “wonder” what happened to him.
He just needs to find a new supplier and recycle back onto the roids. He'll be ok.
Do you guys ever wonder about all the "male pattern baldness" among professional athletes, pronounced jaw lines(even the use of braces by men in their late 20's and early 30's) and emotional lability. Then you've got the exponential increase in tendon injuries because the muscle may get bigger but the ligaments attached to the muscles don't get stronger.
It's not natural to be 6'9" with 5% body fat. Look at wide receivers today and compare them with guys in the 60's and 70's. Nobody wants to pull the curtain back on PEDs in basketball and the joke called the NFL testing. Because they make money and the only ones getting hurt are the athletes that want to do it anyway.
Of course that's my opinion and I might be wrong..... but I doubt it.
He’s washed up. That’s the only reason he came back to Cleveland.
Say it ain’t so!! Say it ain’t so, Joe!!
/s
Wouldn’t be surprised. The baldness is the biggest clue.
Also, when users go off steroids they don't get skinnier - they get doughier as their fake muscle turns to real flab.
I saw James in previous games, and if he wants to score he scores. He's already publicly upbraided his teammates for selfish play (meaning Irving) and got himself in a little trouble. James should be running the offense, but we'll see how Irving, who was the Big Man on the team before James and Love arrrived, reacts.
My own feeling is Cleveland has too much firepower to continue losing even if some of their players are selfish. But it will hurt their chances for a title.
Is that an accepted fact?
I am asking because my husband lost a lot of weight on a low carb diet, but he also was unable to to exercise. After he recovered from the surgery that he had, he never regained the muscle, despite working out regularly. My kids and I worry about him.
He has always been a fitness addict and when he was 58, the doctor wrote on his health report that he was one of the most physically fit men of his age that he had ever seen.
That’s what happens when athletes retire, quit working out, and go off steroids. They get fat. But, basketball is mostly cardio which keeps his body fat around 5% but the muscle shrinks.
Look at sprinter Ben Johnson. He was a lot skinnier and slower after he quit using steroids and tried to keep competing.
Steroids work. That’s why athletes use them. Just ask Lance Armstrong.
The people who are really getting hurt are the athletes who want to compete without the steroids. And the kids who see pro sports mainstreaming drugs that do long-term damage, and who decide that's the necessary and accepted price of playing.
No they don't. He may have had to cycle off the roids for a number of issues including suppliers (privacy matters) shortage of other meds used to mask or counter act the side effects of steroid.
The aliens took him and left a substitute.
RE: My own feeling is Cleveland has too much firepower to continue losing even if some of their players are selfish. But it will hurt their chances for a title.
_________________________
Very few teams are like the San Antonio Spurs, who play basketball the way it should be played — AS A TEAM. And no one has an ego.
When I saw game 1 of last season’s finals, I knew that if San Antonio played the same way it did in the first game, Miami, even with 3 superstars would not win.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.