LeBron James, Dwight Howard big -- even in China



BY JOHN DENTON

FLORIDA TODAY

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Buy this photo In China. Orlando Magic guard Keith Bogans goes up for a layup Monday during practice at Lu Wan Stadium in Shanghai. Cleveland plays the Magic on Wednesday as part of the China Games. John Denton, FLORIDA TODAY

SHANGHAI - The swarm was collapsing around Dwight Howard, the flashbulbs were setting his rippling muscles aglow and he was backed up against a dingy gymnasium wall.

Then, in an instant, the NBA's Next Big Thing reacted like someone well beyond his 21 years and solved a situation stickier than gum on a shoe.

"Ni Hao, everybody, Ni Hao," Howard said with a wide, toothy grin, welcoming the mass of Chinese media that had surrounded him Monday at a practice court in the Lu Wan District of Shanghai.

The Orlando Magic center's graceful reaction speaks deeply to a good-natured, aww-shucks persona that has somehow remained grounded as his stardom has continued to rise.

But Howard's deft resolution of a conflict is also a learned trait, one he picked up after spending much of the past two summers with Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James. He and James have much in common, what with them being the top picks from the 2003 and 2004 NBA Drafts and their love for competing at video games. And by watching how James, a worldwide marketing conglomeration unto himself, deals with the attention he attracts everywhere he goes has helped Howard handle similar circumstances.

"You just smile, try to have fun with it and be polite to people," Howard said of his grace under fire. "LeBron is real down-to-earth and doesn't let that stuff get to him, and I've tried to be the same way."

Howard and James are the unquestioned stars of the 2007 China Games. Their star power has a nation of 1.3 billion people already fascinated by the NBA abuzz with excitement. Monstrous likenesses of James and Howard dot the city of Shanghai, like modern-day Godzillas, if you will. And they are primarily why fans wait outside the team hotel for the hope of a glimpse and why several dozen journalists came from all over China on Monday to talk with two of the NBA's best young players.

And already the two are thinking about next summer when their return to China will carry a much greater significance. Team USA's starting small forward and center hope to help Team USA retain the basketball gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The U.S. squad rolled through the qualifying tournament in August, sending a message to the world that it won't settle for anything but gold next year in China.

"I'm already looking forward to it," James admitted Monday. "We did a great job this summer re-establishing what it means to be a Team USA basketball player and we're going to carry that on to the Olympics."

Whereas James got his Cavs to the NBA Finals last June and has long since established himself as an elite player, Howard has put in hours on his game in hopes of someday soon soaring in James' rarified air. Two weeks after his Magic were swept out of the playoffs last spring, Howard was back in the gym working with Orlando-based shooting coach Charles Richardson to add the kinds of weapons to his offensive arsenal that should help him explode on the court.

Adidas, the shoe that Howard has worn throughout his first three NBA seasons, picked up on the 6-foot-11, 268-pounder's emergence, and in some ways their "Brotherhood" commercial series due out later this year signifies it. In the new series of ads, the shoe giant's top five spokesmen -- Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas and Chauncey Billups -- are joined by Howard. Fitting, considering Howard's seems ready now to be mentioned as one of the game's great players.

"I've been impressed with his maturity level and how coachable he is," new Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Howard. "He's taken on leadership and he's taken criticism. To be a leader, you have to do all of the little things. He wants to take a big step forward this year. And that's not based on what he's said because that's all pretty meaningless. But what he's done has shown me he wants to be great."

James fell somewhat short of his usual greatness last year in the regular season, at times looking sluggish and disinterested after a summer of playing with Team USA. But his greatness did finally emerge in the playoffs when he battered the Detroit Pistons for 48 points in one game and helped the Cavs to the Finals.

A 4-0 sweep by San Antonio drove James through the summer, and he's reported to this training camp in what he calls the best physical condition of his life. The balky jumper and flawed free throw form have been corrected by showing up early and staying late to practice. And when head coach Mike Brown gave the team the option of working out late Sunday afternoon just hours after Cleveland's 18-hour journey to China, James was there in the gym stroking jumpers.

"What happened in the Finals and wanting to be better for the Olympic trials pushed me through the summer," he said. "I wanted to set a new standard for Team USA and a new standard for LeBron James with the Cavs.

"Winning that NBA championship is the next step for me. I've accomplished just about everything possible as an individual so far, and the next level is winning that championship. I'll keep working every year until I've done that."



[ 本帖最后由 风の语 于 2007-10-21 16:30 编辑 ]