Yup. I seen him play. Boy rocks.
The Hype for James Was Worth It
By CHRIS BROUSSARD
CLEVELAND, Dec. 31 — For a month and a half, LeBron James had the world of basketball wide-eyed and open-mouthed like no one before him. He was 18 years old, fresh out of high school and averaging 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists a game in the National Basketball Association.
Magic Johnson had put up similar numbers at that age, but that was at Michigan State. Michael Jordan had averaged a mere 13 points and 4 rebounds as an 18-year-old at North Carolina, and Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant were N.B.A. reserves for most of their rookie season.
Conventional wisdom said that it would not last, that there was a rookie wall in James's future that would keep him from staying at such a level.
In mid-December, James hit that wall running, scaled it with ease and used it to propel himself into another dimension.
As if it were not enough to enter the N.B.A. playing like an All-Star, James has spent the past two weeks playing like a superstar.
Over the Cleveland Cavaliers' last 10 games, James, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound guard, has averaged 27.7 points a game, scoring more than 30 points five times.
"You'd think he's 25 or 26 years old," said Rod Thorn, the president of the Nets, who will play James Friday night at Continental Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., in what will be James's first visit as a professional to the New York metropolitan area. "It's incredible. You look at Kobe and Garnett and those guys — when they were his age, they weren't as good as he is. Will he get up to their level? I'm not saying he will or won't, but there's never been an 18-year-old guy as good as he is."
