Getty LeBron James, Lakers
It is not the most-remembered NBA rivalry in the long career of Lakers star LeBron James, but it was his first. Back in the middle of the 2000s, when James was making his first trips to the postseason, he repeatedly saw the same foe: the Washington Wizards. In fact, for James first three postseason appearances 2006-08), his Cavaliers faced off against the Wiz in the first round, winning all three battles.
The star of those series for the Wizards was guard Gilbert Arenas, who averaged 24.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists in his three matchups against James’ Cavaliers.
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What struck Arenas after watching James in those series was not what James was able to accomplish, but it was that he could have done so much more but instead chose to get his teammates involved and take over the game at the prime moment. Arenas had a bold projection of what might have happened had James been aggressive non-stop.
“It took the whole summer to understand what he was doing and to realize, that was brilliant, to decoy yourself and let everybody get involved and make plays, then you take over,” Arenas told Whistle Sports. “Then decoy again—then I realized, we never actually guarded this guy. When he wasn’t scoring, it was him decoying against us. He could have scored 70 against us. He could score 70 against everybody else.”
‘What Really Made Me Fall in Love With LeBron’
Arenas pointed to a game—Game 5 in the 2006 Eastern Conference opening round—in which James signaled to the bench when he was ready to stop decoying and start dominating. (Arenas, apparently, has the wrong game, as Zydrunas Ilgauskas only played eight seconds in Game 5. It is more likely Game 3.)
What really made me fall in love with LeBron’s play was, we were in the playoffs, it was Game 5. Four minutes left and I picked up something in what he did that kind of changed the series. He was playing decoy, and we’re thinking our game plan is shutting them down. And he looks over at the bench and then gives them the nod. The nod ends up subbing Ilgauskas out, we subbed out Brendan Haywood. When Brendan Haywood subbed out, LeBron James attacked that basket.
Why I fall in love with it is, he decoyed to give everyone else a chance to get involved in the game before he took over. I just thought that was, like, special. Because as soon as I got on the court, I did not care who was on the court, I’m chucking.
LeBron James Faced Physical Matchups vs. Wizards
Despite Arenas’ professed love for James, the Cavs-Wizards series were tense. The Wizards were better at trash-talking than they were at stopping the Cavs and, in one memorable moment, James had his headband knocked off his head on a flagrant foul by DeShawn Stevenson. James lamented the physical play.
“I guess that’s what they want to do,” he said, “hurt LeBron James in this series. It’s not working.”
Remember when DeShawn Stevenson and LeBron James went at it during the Cavs-Wizards series in the 2008 NBA playoffs? DeShawn reflected on that, including Jay-Z’s diss track aimed at him.
Listen to our full 45-minute conversation on The HoopsHype Podcast: t.co/mStmpblMr8
Indeed, it did not. James averaged 35.7 points on 51.0% shooting against a Wizards defense that was ranked 22nd that season. Arenas said, though, that Washington sometimes deluded itself into thinking it was doing a good job on James.
“What ends up happening is, when you think you are guarding LeBron, you are not actually guarding LeBron,” Arenas said. “He’s just in decoy mode, letting everybody else get involved. That is when I was like, ‘OK, I like this guy.’”
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Ex-NBA All-Star Makes Bold Claim on LeBron James Rivalry