by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
LeBron James appears to be cruising to his third MVP, while putting together what is arguably the greatest season of his illustrious career (averages of 27.7 points, 8.2 boards, 6.8 assists and shooting an absurd 54.9% from the field.)
Though impressed by the play of James like everyone else, Hakeem Olajuwon thinks LeBron is only beginning to scratch the surface of his potential.
Hakeem trained with LeBron last summer, as the two worked on improving LBJ’s postgame, and he feels that the Miami Heat superstar can reach an even higher level of performance with some seasoning.
From Fox Sports:
“He’s doing fantastic,” Olajuwon said. “He should (win MVP), no question about it. The statistics speak for themselves.” But Olajuwon still believes James, 27, is just scratching the surface. With some further work, he anticipates James will be even better. “I knew he recorded everything we worked on,” Olajuwon said. “I know he’s practiced it. I can see that. But the comfort level, when you get into the competition, you start playing to your strengths, which is more of (an) outside (game). I see him post up. But I still see a lot of opportunities there. He’s not capitalizing as much as he should. He needs more of a refresher course where he can become more comfortable. I see him (improving his post game), but he needs more time.”
For now, James said he’s quite content with what he has learned from Olajuwon. “It’s helped me a lot,” James said. “I’m more comfortable. I’m more comfortable down there late in games. I can go down there and I know I can get a bucket or a foul and I know I’m going to get a good look. It’s more of a high-percentage shot than being out on the perimeter at times. And that’s part of the reason why my percentages have gone up. Free throws have gone up (from last season). And that’s part of the reason I’m shooting my best three-point (percentage of his career at 43.1). Because I feel more comfortable in the post, I’m not taking as many threes. I got a lot of insight from Hakeem.”
Scheduling conflicts may prevent it from taking place, but LeBron James says he is up for more post lessons from Hakeem Olajuwon.
The best player in the game hasn’t even reached his full potential yet, and he’s willing to to learn from others on how to get there. Needless to say, that’s very bad news for the rest of the NBA.
