LeBron James played poorly for the first three quarters of the Miami Heat’s Game 6 win over the San Antonio Spurs, but his night turned around completely when he lost his headband early in the fourth quarter. James finished with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in the comeback win, doing most of his damage without the headband.
Naturally, reporters asked LeBron on Wednesday if he would play with or without the headband in Game 7 on Thursday night.
“I’ll probably start off with it, man, ” he said with a smile, via Eye on Basketball. “A little superstitious. If it gets knocked off, then me and him will have a discussion if he will return.”
Either way, something tells me LeBron is in for a big game on Thursday night. He was labeled a “choker” to start his career, but James has answered those critics and been anything but over the past two seasons.
As for the headband, Chris Bosh said it was like “Bruce Lee seeing his own blood” when LeBron turned it on after losing it. Dwyane Wade said he was surprised to see him without it, but that LeBron wasn’t going to let anything stop him.
“I was like, ‘What is going on?’ He was just in that moment,” Wade said. “He just said ‘Listen, it doesn’t matter.’ I think he said the might have come out of his jersey if he had to. I don’t think the NBA would have liked it.
“He was about whatever it took.”
Is it disturbing that we’re talking about a headband on the day of Game 7 of the NBA Finals? A little bit, but superstitions are a big part of sports. If LeBron comes out and puts up a stinker of a first half on Thursday night, you know for fact thousands of fans will be tweeting about how he should lose the headband.
