CAVALIERS Despite solid play, critics insist James not yet a superstar

The Cleveland rookie will ultimately be judged on wins.
By SAM SMITH
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CLEVELAND -- Coming soon to an arena near you! LeBron James, Lord of the Hardwood.
One of the Year's 10 Best! Well, not really.
Two Thumbs Up! Not yet.
The Feel-Good Story of the Year! Here's hoping.
Winner of 7-of-26 games!
Let's hear from the critics.
"Here's something I did not expect to learn about LeBron James, basketball's great poster prodigy and current hoops redeemer. He was the 11th- or 12th-best player on the floor of the Pepsi Center on Tuesday, and I'm throwing in Rocky, the Nuggets' mascot. James the attraction has the appeal of a dry sponge."--Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News.
"His Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Clippers, and James lost to the hoopla. James played like the growing rookie that he is, yet grumbling fans wanted the 'Magic' that he was supposed to be."--Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times.
"Great, historical-level players make their mark with their style, impact and competitive greatness. Now is the time to shed the niceties about how wonderful this all is. Show us that you care that it's not working."--Bill Walton, Basketball Hall of Famer.
Positives and negatives
If you're planning to come see LeBron James to see something special, something you never have seen before, a breathtaking moment or one of those memorable moves, save your money.
Others already are. James played in Cleveland on Dec. 17 to an ever-dwindling home crowd of 14,567, about 6,000 short of capacity. The road is getting no kinder with about 14,000 in Indiana on Dec. 22.
If you want to see a remarkably mature rookie laboring with a bad team under unreasonable and unyielding expectations, then James is the ticket. He is a young man destined to be very good with a sophisticated all-around game.
"I love his demeanor, the way he plays the game," said Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, whose team gave James another of the 50-plus losses he'll absorb this season. "He's open, he shoots. He's guarded, he passes. His mind-set is to win the game. Imagine that! His game is rooted in soundness. At his position, he's very similar to how Tim Duncan was at 18, the same demeanor, solid, sound, smart."
You can win with a player like Duncan, as the San Antonio Spurs have proved with two championships in the last five years. But you don't go out of your way to buy his sneaker --Ground Duncan -- and you don't see his shot chart on "SportsCenter."
With a name like Duncan he doesn't even get a fancy nickname, like "Duncan On You!" James was known as "King James" before he even came to the NBA.
Coach's dream
That is perhaps the ultimate irony of the LeBron James story a little less than two months into his tenure as guardian of the game. (By the way, can you remember where you were the first time you saw a LeBron James commercial?) What is different about James is that he plays the game the way coaches like Van Gundy, Larry Brown and John Wooden would like --unselfishly, pass first, on the ground, grounded, actually.
"He thinks the game better than anyone his age," Bulls general manager John Paxson said. "You watch him and the first thing you notice is how unselfish he is. Every kid who comes into this league wants to score. The only thing they know is to play with the ball in their hands. They don't care about getting others involved. With this kid, that's his first thought. He's not given enough credit for that."
What is remarkable about James is not what he says or what he does but what he is, a highly sophisticated basketball player at an age when most kids still can't pick a college major. James can find a pick and use it.
Still improving
Cavs coach Paul Silas believes James can do the spectacular, though not much yet.
"Eventually, I think he can average a triple double, which only Oscar Robertson has done," Silas said. "He's 6-8, so he should rebound. But 10 rebounds is not out of the question. He's going to have the ball, so 10 assists isn't out of the question. And he's going to score in double figures."
James is leading the Cavs in scoring at 18 points per game and in assists at 6.1 per game. He's third in rebounding, also at 6.1 per game.
He has the lob slam in him. He just chooses not to do it that much. He has had some outbursts, like averaging 26 points in the four games before he had 17 on Dec. 17.
"No one has been under the scrutiny this kid has been under in the history of the league," Silas said. "He came in supposing to be the savior of the league. It takes time to learn this business. But I never thought he'd be as far along as he is now."