Miami's LeBron James may want to rethink his popular dunking warm-up routine before NBA fans lay another piece of criticism on his shoulders.
He refuses to participate in the NBA's Slam Dunk Contest, but if fans show up early to a Miami Heat game, James routinely puts on a one-man aerial show, leaving fans with questions of why not do it on the biggest stage during All-Star weekend.
James appeared on YouTube Monday with a pre-game dunk that was sure to get a couple ten scores during a dunk contest. Before Sunday's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he threw the ball between his legs from the free throw line, bounced it off the backboard and dunked it over teammate Rashard Lewis.
"Rashard made it look better than what it really was," James said. "He actually jumped and I was able to catch it over the top of him. It was really cool. It looked good. A lot of my fans were excited about seeing it."
The play was unrehearsed, according to Lewis, who went through similar experiences with the Orlando Magic playing alongside Dwight Howard. Lewis would often position himself under the basket in attempt to get a blocked shot during Howard's pre-game dunk:
"It was just something (James) kind of did," Lewis said. "I just happened to be under the basket at the time ... It wasn't planned at all. I just happened to be at the rim at the time he dunked. It was a spur of the moment thing."
Before Tuesday's matchup against the Sacramento Kings, James dazzled fans with another high flying jam, when he lobbed the ball into the air, caught it off the bounce and shifted the ball between his legs before slamming it with authority through the rim.
But, even though his pre-game dunks are giving the fans added excitement and incentive to make it to the games earlier, James has realized the average fan reaction is, "If you could do it in warm-ups, why can you do it in the dunk contest?"
"Maybe I should stop because it's making a lot of people mad about what I do," James said after he scored a season-high 40 points and had a career-high 16 assists in Tuesday's double-overtime win against Sacramento. "They're like, 'Well, if you can do it in warm-ups, why don't you [want to] be in the dunk contest?' Stop it.' "
James said Tuesday he wasn't aware of how popular the routine has grown, because it's something he's always done. More Heat players have gotten involved, including Chris Andersen, Mike Miller, Ray Allen, Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers, who has been James' stiffest competition of late.
"I've been hearing about it," James said. "But I don't really watch TV or go on the Internet too much. As a team, it's kind of our new thing. I've had some good ones, but (Chalmers) doing a 360? That's impressive. We have a little epidemic right now. It's kind of like the Harlem Shake."
Below are highlights from James' 40 point and career-high 16 assists performance in Tuesday's game against the Kings: