King James proving his Royalty

Grant Conroy, Sports Editor

February 14, 2013

It is already known that Lebron James’ skill level, athletic ability, and prowess in the game of basketball is far superior to that of any other player in the National Basketball Association.

But lately, he has been on an extremely hot streak, one that has heads turning and people double-taking.

On third of February in a game against the Toronto Raptors, James missed a shot off the back iron with 9:24 left in the fourth quarter. Since that point, he has remarkably made 70 of his last 96 attempts from the field, a stat that is truly astonishing, even for King James.

The average field goal percentage for an all-star quality player in this league is usually around 40-50 percent. However, James has surpassed this average with flying colors. Over his last six games since that missed shot in Toronto, he has been shooting an unheard of 73 percent, while finishing 4-4 in that game. Moreover, over the next four games against Charlotte, Houston, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Portland he has gone 13-for-14, 11-for-18, 9-of-11, 12-of-18, and 11-for-15.

On top of his pin-point accuracy as of late, his production has been just as good. Over these six games, he has surpassed 30 points in each, which deems him the first basketball player in NBA history to score 30 points and shoot at least 60 percent from the field in six consecutive games.

To put James’s performance on the court into perspective, Kobe Bryant’s best shooting season of his career, shooting percentage wise, was 47 percent, and, in addition, upcoming star Kevin Durants’s best season average was 52 percent. And, most shocking to the basketball world, Lebron’s current streak puts him ahead of the great Michael Jordan, whose best season of shooting was 54 percent.

Teams are simply not able to handle James’s dominance on the floor. His ability to create space and get solid looks from anywhere on the court is what is making him so elite. Defenses are simply incapable of stopping Lebron from getting to his preferred sports on the court, which in most cases, is the rim.

His ability, talent, and power is scary at times, but the most frightening part of all, he is only 28 years old!

About the Contributor

Grant Conroy, Staff/Sports Writer

This is Grant Conroy, a junior at Bethel Park High School who is new to the Hawk Eye staff. This is his first year writing for the newspaper and he is already taking the online writing world by storm. He is an experienced writer due to his previous years spent in honors and advanced English classes. Grant enjoys writing primarily about sports topics and controversies, but he has a wide variety of areas in which he excels as well. While in college, he plans to utilize his 4.2 GPA to major in Journalism/Writing at the university of his choice. A few colleges that he is considering are Northwestern University, Boston University, and the University of Vermont. Outside of the classroom, Grant is a dedicated and hardworking member of the Wrestling team, Yearbook, PACS, and of course, the Hawk Eye. Additional hobbies of his include snowboarding at various mountain resorts, playing with his dog Rosie, and living life like there's no tomorrow. He plans to continue writing for the Hawk Eye during his senior year of High School.