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LeBron James: Game-winning shot in NBA All-Star Game 'inspired by MJ'
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- LeBron James: Game-winning shot in NBA All-Star Game 'inspired by MJ'
During the NBA's 75th anniversary ceremony , LeBron James made sure to share a few words with Michael Jordan, a rare meeting of two of the players who, at different times, carried the league as ambassadors and global superstar talents.
So there was only one way Sunday night's All-Star Game was ending.
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James, back in Cleveland, channeling Jordan.
With Team LeBron leading 161-60 and one basket away from hitting the target score of 163 to win it under the newer format, James called for the ball. He's the team captain, having chosen the rest of Team LeBron, which included Cavs players Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen . It was in Cleveland. Nobody else was taking the shot after Team Durant pulled to within one 3-pointer of stealing the win.
James squared up and, against two defenders, buried a fadeaway jumper from just inside the 3-point line to win it.
Not long before sinking that shot to win the All-Star Game, James was "tripped out" at halftime while seeing many of the game's all-time elite talents gathered together under one roof, Jordan included.
On this night, in this city, and after James made it a point to seek out Jordan during the ceremony, there was quite simply no other way the game was going to end.
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"It's crazy that the game-winning shot tonight was a fadeaway, and it was inspired by MJ," James said after the game. "The way he wore his shoes, the way he wore his uniform, I mean, all the way down to some of the cars that he drove, how much he inspired me.
"I didn't want to waste that opportunity because we're just not in — we're not in the same building a lot and haven't been in the same building a lot throughout my career. It meant something to me."
The NBA celebrated the 75 best players in league history on Sunday night. It was one of, if not the, greatest collection of basketball royalty under one roof in the game's history.
Jordan. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Magic Johnson. Shaquille O'Neal. Charles Barkley. Julius Erving. Oscar Robertson. Jerry West. On and on, the game's legends gathered on the court in Cleveland.
And for those not there — the late Kobe Bryant in memoriam received a loud ovation — James said you "still felt their presence." It was a surreal moment for James to be standing next to the game's legends on the same stage.
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"It would be like going to your favorite musician's concert in the greatest stadium, and you are literally on stage with them while they're performing, and the sense of 'I can't believe that I'm here,'" James said. "That's the best way that I can put it. I can't believe I'm sitting next to Bruce Springsteen while he is playing in a stadium in London with 160,000 people, or I'm in the Garden with Jay-Z or whoever that person is. I'm sitting here with Whitney Houston onstage in a coliseum with 90,000 people and you're on stage. That's kind of what it felt like for me. I just couldn't believe it.
"Every time they would announce another name, I didn't even get an opportunity to, like, rejoice in the player that they had named. It was, like, Gary Payton. I was, like,
'Wow.' Then [Jason] Kidd showed up, and then A.I. [Allen Iverson] showed up, and then it was [Dwyane] Wade, C.P. [ Chris Paul ], and Steph [Curry]. I just tripped out. I was tripped out."
And in a scene rarely seen, James and Jordan embraced and shared a few words. It isn't something that has happened often.
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"I did not want to lose the opportunity to shake the man's hand that inspired me throughout my childhood," James said. "I haven't had much dialogue with him in my 20 years or 19 years in this business, but part of me wouldn't be here without MJ's inspiration. I always wanted to be like him growing up."
James finished the game with 24 points, six rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Curry took home Most Valuable Player honors after he dropped 50 points on 16 3-pointers. But after Curry went cold late in the fourth quarter — when both teams' effort ramped up — it was James who finished it.
That shot. That moment. That night. That arena.
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Even James couldn't have pictured it any better.
"I couldn't have dreamt it. I could not have dreamed of that moment any better than the actuality that just happened," James said. "For me to be back here, like I keep stating, 35 minutes [from] where I grew up here in Akron, Ohio, to hit the game-winner in the All-Star Game where me and my guys back in the [day], we used to watch the All-Star Game.
"I remember 25 years ago we were 12, 11, wishing that we had the opportunity or the means to come up to Cleveland and see some of the greatest basketball players of all time because they inspired us so much."
Although the shot was special, nothing was going to beat the halftime ceremony and the chance to stand among the game's all-time best.
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James couldn't quite find the right words to convey how he felt.
"To be a part of the 75 greatest basketball players to ever play, it just takes me back to my childhood once again growing up in Spring Hill and having all my inspirations taped on my wall: Allen Iverson and Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Michael Jordan,
Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson," James said.
"To see those guys today and then be on stage with those guys it is — you guys don't understand. I'm trying to make you understand as much as I can, but it's just crazy."
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Cavs at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cavs. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Michael Jordan inspires LeBron James game-winning NBA All-Star shot
