LeBron James: The Chemistry Lesson

Written by Gene Zarnick

Tuesday, 09 February 2010

Sports teams are tough to figure out. It seems easy to think a team is going to win it all when they have lots of talent, but that's not always the case. You need depth, you need coaching, you need size, strength, talent. You need a coach who will have their players' backs and players who want to win for their coach.

Most importantly, you need chemistry.

Chemistry is an often overlooked aspect of sports teams. Most people think that a team is just talented and talent knows how to play together or a team gains chemistry as the season goes on. The real question is what is the catalyst for team chemistry?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the best team in the NBA. They're on an eleven game win streak and will easily move that to twelve after tonight’s game against the New Jersey Nets. How are they the best team in the league though? Oh, did I mention that two of their best players are injured? cavs

The Cavs don't have the best coach. They don't have the deepest bench, or at least they didn't. They may have the best single player of talent, but overall they aren't the most talented team. Still somehow they are the best team in the NBA. It's because they have the best chemistry.

What the Cavs have shown this year has been remarkable. This is a team that have meshed their personalities so well that no matter who is on the court at the same time it feels like they've been playing together for multiple years. They can have a starting lineup of Daniel Gibson, Anthony Parker, LeBron James, J.J. Hickson, and Shaquille O'Neal and I watch them and never once think that this team won't beat whomever they're playing. If you don't like their antics in pre-game then who cares, your team isn't doing what the Cavs are doing.

Cleveland has had multiple injuries from various starting players throughout the year and it's actually made the team better. It has given guys off the bench that never usually got much playing time, a chance to play legitimate minutes and most importantly, a chance to play with LeBron James.

Like him, love him, hate him, despise him; LeBron James is teammate in any sport. A talented, unselfish, team player, who wants to better himself while bettering his team. LeBron James is the intangible that no other team has.

We've seen in other sports how much chemistry plays a part of winning championships. Would the Yankees have won the championship last year without clubhouse favorite Nick Swisher on the team? I don't know, but they sure didn't win it previous years with all the talent in the world. When you bring talent, depth, and solid coaching together with chemistry it's the perfect potion for a championship team.

Chemistry is the reason the Cavaliers have been able to excel even without Mo Williams and Delonte West. It's the reason Shaq has been content with being on the bench in the final minutes of games. Chemistry has helped create more depth on the Cavs and by doing so it created more talent on the Cavs. Chemistry is a potion that rubs off on everyone around you.

So even if LeBron James is the sole reason for the chemistry, and he's the reason that other players have transitioned from bench player to role player to starter, the best part about the chemistry is that he has become a better player from the chemistry of the other players' as well.

I sure said chemistry a lot!

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written by cofcmvp, February 09, 2010

Well put, Gene.

The chemistry on this team and the corresponding hunger is the single most important thing that the Cavaliers have on their two biggest roadblocks to a championship, the Celtics and the Lakers.

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written by FavreDollarFootlongs, February 09, 2010

See I think the Hawks and Magic will be much tougher then the Celtics. Celtics just don't have the legs to run with the Cavs or many teams anymore. They have to be nailing shots to do it and I don't think they can do it for 4 out of 7.

Great piece
written by mookie @ A Stern Warning, February 10, 2010

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of LeBron James' public persona. He seems too cocky and a bit staged to me. However, there is no doubting that he seems to have drawn his team around him and he did it a lot sooner than Kobe Bryant did (yep, there goes that comparison again!).

When Kobe came into the league it took quite a few years for people to regard him as a "team player". That has certainly changed now and Bryant does a great job of deferring where necessary and trusting his teammates, but LeBron has done that since square one -- even to the extent that people criticised him early on for passing up big late-game shots to teammates.

Great piece -- the chemistry is there.

KB/LJ
written by FavreDollarFootlongs, February 11, 2010

Mookie,

I think Team USA is the key for both Kobe and Lebron. They just know how to work with others now, while also pushing others the right way. It's not about getting everyone to work their hardest individually, it's about getting the team to work the hardest together.

We really need a Kobe vs. Lebron final. I know the hype affair would be ridiciulous, but that's what we want. DS needs to make it happen. Or at least Kobe and Lebron do.

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written by ugg boots, July 10, 2010

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