Lebron James Silicone Wristbands

Note: This is an excerpt from a story mentioning the custom bracelets made by Reminderband for Lebron James.

A chance to play mad scientist, that’s all Nelson wants. On Tuesday, he got his shot. The Warriors played with some of last spring’s slash and swagger, led by six early in the fourth quarter.

Then they faded and lost 108-104 after a defensive lapse gave the Cavs’ Daniel Gibson an open three-point shot that he buried for a four-point lead with 19 seconds to play.

Disappointing for Nelson and his team, but a vast improvement on the first three games. A ray of hope.

It was the type of action that the Cavs’ LeBron James came to appreciate last season as a Warriors’ fan. In fact, I bet if you gave James his choice of any NBA team to play for right now, he would choose the Warriors.

Before the game, I asked James what he thought of the Warriors’ run last season. He smiled.

“It was fun to watch them, honestly,” James said. “I tuned in to every last one of their playoff games. As a fan, it was fun to see.”

In one of those little NBA moments, James was opening up plastic packets of rubber wristbands, like the Lance Armstrong Livestrong bands, only in Cleveland’s red and gold colors and embossed with “King James.” He put a gold one and a red one on each wrist.

“Are those for charity?” someone asked James.

“They’re for (pause) … for me,” he said with a smile.

Seems practical. It’s a rough game, NBA basketball; you could take an elbow upside the head and awaken in a hospital not remembering who you are. You would look at your wrists and say, “Well, I guess I’m a Bible reader.”

James loves to watch the Warriors, and he knows that even when he scores 35, hardly anyone talks about how much fun the Cavaliers are to watch.

There was a brief flurry in the second quarter Tuesday, a breakneck, out-of-control back-and-fourth exchange that featured blocks, dives, steals and great passes. That one minute was more exciting than anything that happened in the entire four games of last season’s NBA Finals, Cavaliers vs. Spurs.

James is quick, he can run and shoot and pass. Put him on the Warriors and they challenge for the title, and light up arenas from coast to coast.

“One of my best attributes is running the floor,” he said after the game, “and in a game like this, you get a chance to do that.”

In the previous three games, James averaged just less than 14 shot attempts per game. That’s no fun. Andris Biedrins sometimes takes 14 shots.

James took 10 shots in the first half Tuesday. Because the Warriors, unlike the Spurs and a lot of Eastern Conference teams, not only run like crazy, they don’t get all defense-y and thuggish. On defense, they do more waving than whacking. And when they get the ball, the Warriors use the entire court; they run.

When the Cavs came out for pregame warm-ups, as his teammates did the cool NBA saunter into their two lazy layup lines, James ran four full-speed, full-court warm-up sprints.

He’s 22, a colt, stuck pulling a milk wagon.

James doesn’t complain, but he had to be a little envious when Nelson went to his bench in the second quarter for Monta Ellis, Superwaif. Ellis, wearing the same slightly disoriented look so many attributed to nerves in last season’s playoffs, sprinted and darted and flew for 14 second-quarter points.

James didn’t merely watch, he joined in the fun, and played a superstar- type game, 24 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists.

He worked up a sweat, and he probably dreamed of playing for the Warriors. Then he got on the Cavs’ bus and moved on.