(Editor's Note: Shane Battier is a former Miami Heat teammate of LeBron James, who is poised to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer. Battier played in the NBA for 13 seasons, the last three of them with James in Miami. He shared some memorable moments with The Associated Press of what he witnessed during their time together with the Heat.)
There was a night that I鈥檒l never forget as long as I live, and it made me have just such a deeper appreciation for who LeBron James was as a person, as a man, as a player.
We were in Boston in 2012, during the playoffs, no love lost from Boston fans. We鈥檙e walking to dinner and a car slows down next to us. A guy said, 鈥淗ey LeBron, I hate you, you suck.鈥� He rolls up the window and proceeds down the street.
As players we鈥檙e used to being called names and whatnot. But at that moment I understood all the stuff he had to deal with from Day 1 and being on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16 and being No. 1 in the draft and being the most hyped athlete maybe ever, the most famous athlete maybe ever at every step of the way. There wasn鈥檛 a moment where he could hide behind a teammate, hide behind a coach.
He鈥檚 always proven he can handle it. He handled it that time, too.
The next night was Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. We all know what Game 6 was for us, right? If we lose Game 6, then we all have new addresses the next year. The Big Three is a Dumpster fire of an experiment that failed at the highest level. And legacies were on the line, from LeBron to Pat Riley to Erik Spoelstra, you name it. We knew what the implications of losing that Game 6 would be. (Editor鈥檚 Note: Miami trailed the Celtics, 3-2 and James had 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in Game 6 to save the season, one where the Heat went on to win the NBA title.)
I played baseball growing up. The way he played that night was the closest thing to watching a no-hitter, a perfect game. We sort of nudged, sort of elbowed each other on the bench and said, 鈥淥h my gosh, this guy鈥檚 a monster.鈥� We didn鈥檛 want to talk about it. We tried to be cool. But, I鈥檓 sorry, we鈥檇 never seen anything like this. And we鈥檝e all seen everything in the game. You want to look up determination in the dictionary? It鈥檇 be LeBron James. It was the greatest display of will that I saw in my entire career because of the circumstances, because of the consequences, because of the team we played. The Celtics had no shot that night. I had never seen anything like it, even to this day.
In my mind, he鈥檚 the greatest player of all time. I鈥檓 biased, I know that, but I鈥檓 allowed to be. And I know we said this with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, we said this with Wilt Chamberlain, we said this with Michael Jordan, but I don鈥檛 think we鈥檒l see someone like LeBron James ever again.
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Shane Battier, The Associated Press
