In Rio, LeBron gets Cavs in groove
— -- RIO DE JANEIRO -- One mid-morning this week along Copacabana Beach with the sun already burning the sand, LeBron James ran down the coastline as a real-life Nike commercial unfolded behind him, joggers surprised to see a celebrity lining up to run with him.
Part of the group were Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson, two of the young Cleveland Cavaliers who had woken up early for the voluntary workout. James has targeted both of them to mentor since signing with the Cavs in July and part of that enrollment is extra outings such as this one.
Foremost, the Miami Heat are going to miss James' multifaceted talents, his wide-ranging ability to affect games. It is already clear just three preseason games in that, while the Heat have enough on their roster to be a factor in the Eastern Conference, the absence of James' playmaking is a decimating blow to how they play.
This is what was going on this week in Rio, where the focus was understandably on just how the Cavs and Heat would dance around each other. James, though, has had something else on his mind, and that morning run on the beach was just one layer.
The Cavs beat the Heat Saturday 122-119 in a "friendly" as they call it here, though this trip was more about business development and brand construction than anything to do with a basketball. The setting of the game mattered little to James, who has been on four different continents in the last three months anyway.
He had a clear purpose for this week and it wasn't to make nice with his ex-teammates. Though he made sure to do that, leaving Mario Chalmers and Dwyane Wade with hugs and a promise to see them on Christmas in Miami before he left the floor after overtime. James was working on his side job as adviser/motivator.
On the 10-hour flight to Brazil Tuesday night, James held court with his some of his teammates as they huddled in the center of the first-class section of a chartered airliner. After they arrived, he led an excursion to the beach for some swimming.
Saturday night he was focused on something more elementary but in the same vein. The Cavs had been having some trouble with new coach David Blatt's offense. It's not that it's too complex, it's just different. Blatt runs a modified version of the Princeton offense that is not typical in the NBA and so even the team's veterans are dealing with a learning curve.
James clearly wanted to make Saturday, the Cavs' second preseason game and first against an NBA opponent, a growth day with the offense. The crowd of 15,000-plus wanted to see him dunk and score and he did throw one down in the first half, but James was interested in getting rid of the ball as fast as he got it. Trying to set the tone and get the ball movement going, James acted like it was a hot potato.
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