USA TODAY International Edition
THE MASTER OF MEMORY
James’ ability to recall proves MVP- caliber , too
LeBron James has
SAN ANTONIO watched, played and studied enough basketball to have a pretty good understanding of what the San Antonio Spurs will try to do offensively and defensively. His memory, as he has demonstrated throughout the playoffs, is remarkable.
“I am able to play a lot of plays in my head,” the Miami Heat forward and NBA MVP said.
James’ ability is unusual, but at the same time he has been smart enough to cultivate it. He uses what he remembers for how he handles defensive sets and particular matchups. He works to make it an asset.
“Of all the things LeBron is, he’s a basketball nerd. I’m going to say it,” teammate Shane Battier said. “He watches it and studies it and is a student of the way the game is played.”
It is similar to the way a golfer remembers shots — how far away from the pin, where the ball landed and the outcome, be it birdie, par or bogey. Or the way a baseball player remembers the pitch and pitch count on a home run. But those sports move at a much slower pace than basketball.
After the Heat defeated the Indiana Pacers in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, James walked into his news conference and rattled off details of Paul George’s game- tying three- pointer with 0.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“Going through my mind now, Paul George entered the ball to David West and he got the handoff. So UD ( Udonis Haslem) and D- Wade ( Dwyane Wade) switched. D- Wade ended up on David West, and I was on George Hill. Me and D- Wade switched. ( George) got a pass from David West, and he launched one.”
James remembered precise details, as he does on many plays.
James began developing a knack for recollecting plays and offensive and defensive schemes as early as youth basketball. He uses that stored knowledge to help his team gain an advantage over an opponent.
“I can remember plays in situations a couple of years back, a few years back,” James said. “It became important to me probably when I got in high school.”
His high school coach, Keith Dambrot, saw it then and is still impressed by it. Dambrot, who is now the coach at the University of Akron, called James a basketball genius.
“He remembers everything,” Dambrot said. “What you have is a mix of unbelievable instincts and an ability to learn at a very fast rate, and so he can go back in his mind and analyze what they’re doing. I’ve been around a lot of players over the years, and there are a lot of guys who understand the game. I’ve never seen one who understands it better than him.”
Barry Gordon, a professor of neurology and cognitive science at Johns Hopkins, said most people have the same raw level of memory.
“What accounts for the differences in most cases are interest, organization and experience,” Gordon said. “The three are all interrelated, because if you have interest in something, you embed it in your mind or your memory more firmly. If you have experience, you generate that organization that helps you recall it. On the surface, I would guess LeBron has been cultivating this ability for some time. To build up these memory abilities, it takes a lot of practice and a lot of interest over an extended period of time.”
How does that help James? Maybe the next time the Heat are defending an out- of- bounds play — like the George play — James will have a better idea of what might happen and how to defend it better.
Battier noticed James’ memory recall shortly after joining the Heat at the start of the 2011- 12 season.
“It became a pattern when discussing certain coverages or certain plays,” Battier said.
James looks at his ability in two ways. “Sometimes it can cloud my mind too much and I get to thinking about the game too much instead of just playing. Sometimes I’m able to put myself in situations that are better for me and better for our team by knowing what happened before. I guess it’s a gift and a curse.”