Remember earlier this season when LeBron James apologized for not spending enough time “above the rim?” Well, now we fully understand why The King has been dunking less frequently this season than in years past.
He can’t jump!
Not actually, of course. Even at 30 years-old, James can still get up with most every player in the NBA. But would he have completed this monster jam several years ago? Without a doubt. Today, however, age and other factors have sapped LeBron of the truly unmatched explosiveness he enjoyed during his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That’s not necessarily why he has only 88 dunks – a career-low – in 2014-2015, though. James is playing farther from the basket this season than he did in recent years with the Miami Heat, and Cleveland’s defensive scheme doesn’t lend itself to run-outs the way Erik Spoelstra’s hyper-aggressive style did. And ever since his two-week January break to recover from nagging knee and back pain, he’s been throwing down on the regular, too.
But instead of being basketball’s truly best leaper, James is now just among the game’s top high-fliers – a development evidenced by this pathetic, horribly embarrassing missed slam.
[Vine via Ben Rohrbach]
