Dwight Howard has done it the last two summers. Kobe Bryant has done it.
Now it is LeBron James’ turn.
LeBron has made the pilgrimage to Houston to work out with Hakeem Olajuwon, he told the Associated Press.
“I look at what he was able to do throughout his career,” James said. “Unbelievable talent. Multiple champion. Just to see how he was able to dominate in the low post, for me as an individual, I just try to look at some of the things I feel I need to get better at and hit home at it. Our team becomes better if I continue to get better and that’s what it’s about…
“Right now I’ve just been focusing on being a better player, working on my game every single day. Like I said, the Dallas Mavericks were a great team and they deserved to win that championship. I’ll just use that as motivation coming into this season.”
James is already a good post player, better than he gets credit for, and the Heat also use him on the block more than people think — 8.1 percent of his shots came on post ups last season and he shot 54 percent from the block.
Sebastian Pruiti does a fantastic breakdown of LeBron’s post game over at NBA Playbook. (He also says Dirk Nowitzki is the best post player in the game right now.)
What LeBron has not shown in the post is a lot of moves — he’s so big and strong he essentially bullies his way to a shot. He can just overpower or spin past a defender, and LeBron has a nice little fadeaway. But Olajuwon will teach him to widen that array and that will make him even more dangerous on the block.
