What if LeBum went to college?

[Rondo9dunx]

What if Lebron decided to go to college for 2 years instead of playing right out of high school?

Would he have benefited from having spent more time as a young, relatively poor man that didnt have so much hype and expectations around him?

Would potentially learning how to close a game vs B level talent(as in high school being C and NBA being A level) carried over better into the NBA?

Or would he just have blown so many people out of the water in college that his ego and expectations grew bigger and higher?

What kind of impact do you think 2 years at a D-1 school would have had on his game, but also his attitude and approach to life.

Personally I think he would have pulled a Reggie Bush and then ended pretty much in the same boat that he's in now


**EDIT**
Please dont complain about me calling him LeBum, I just cant talk about non-boston teams or players without givin them some guff I was born right down the street from Fenway, I dont just bleed boston green I foam it from the mouth!

[slamtheking]

he probably would have ended up the same.  Stern was drooling over the star power of Bron since high school.  he'd have been anointed the chosen one from day one in the league regardless of when that happened.

[Rondo9dunx]

I think at the very least it would have given him a chance to play somewhere else than Cleveland.

Pretty convenient that Cleveland got that pick the year he was comin in

[celticsclay]

He might be physically smaller since it seems like steroid tests are harder to beat in college athletics. It seems there is a chance he could have started using steroids in the nba.  It is my personal hypothesis that lebron uses or used steroids based on the transformation of his body. I have no proof of this.

[Witch-King]

LeBron doesn't use steroids. The guy has had an 'NBA body' since his junior year of high school. Also, it's not like LeBron came into the league and was an immediate impact -- during his rookie season he played point guard for a while and was clearly over-shadowed by players like Ricky Davis and Darius Miles, though he still managed to win Rookie of the Year that season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyPsiBBOCes

[cdif911]

He might be physically smaller since it seems like steroid tests are harder to beat in college athletics. It seems there is a chance he could have started using steroids in the nba.  It is my personal hypothesis that lebron uses or used steroids based on the transformation of his body. I have no proof of this.

now that I think of it he does look a lot different than he did in HS:

[celticsclay]

LeBron doesn't use steroids. The guy has had an 'NBA body' since his junior year of high school. Also, it's not like LeBron came into the league and was an immediate impact -- during his rookie season he played point guard for a while and was clearly over-shadowed by players like Ricky Williams and Darius Miles, though he still managed to win Rookie of the Year that season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyPsiBBOCes

Umm compare
http://str8hoops.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/lebron-james-high-school.jpg

with

http://healthhabits.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/lebron-muscle.jpg

Combined that with the growth of his facial bones and subsequent tumor and there is at least a reason for the whispers. Also, if you follow closely you will notice some NBA players get huge their first couple years in the league when they are 19-21 while players that are still in college at the age really struggle to put on the weight. With the season in college being 30 games long and the nba season being 82, plus summer league, preseason and potentially playoffs and its hard to imagine why its so much easier for someone to put on a lot of muscle mass in the nba. I think its a fair question to raise. Also, with the NFL regularly suspending players and sometimes key ones and even MLB stepping up, you have to wonder why the only player to be suspended for performance enhancing drugs in recent times was rashard twig lewis. Maybe I should start a thread, but I do think Lebron would be physically smaller if he had gone to college a few years

[Redz]

He might be physically smaller since it seems like steroid tests are harder to beat in college athletics. It seems there is a chance he could have started using steroids in the nba.  It is my personal hypothesis that lebron uses or used steroids based on the transformation of his body. I have no proof of this.

now that I think of it he does look a lot different than he did in HS:

I'm thinking that guy would be a poor free throw shooter.

[Rondo9dunx]

let's not forget he was still going through puberty when he started in the nba.....

most people dont stop growing until they are 21.. not to mention i'm sure he's been lifting alot more weights now that he's not going to class every day...


I doubt he's usin steroids even tho I hate him

[fairweatherfan]

LeBron doesn't use steroids. The guy has had an 'NBA body' since his junior year of high school. Also, it's not like LeBron came into the league and was an immediate impact -- during his rookie season he played point guard for a while and was clearly over-shadowed by players like Ricky Williams and Darius Miles, though he still managed to win Rookie of the Year that season.

High school athletes can and do take steroids and other PEDs, and a guy who's been hyped since 8th grade like LeBron wouldn't have any trouble getting ahold of what he wanted if he chose to do so.  Doesn't mean he was using something, but being big in high school definitely doesn't rule it out, and it's arguably more likely since being built like that at 16 is a lot less likely to have happened naturally.

If he's on anything though it's probably HGH and not steroids; they can and do test for steroids, but there's no accurate HGH test yet.  This also fits more with the unusual changes in facial structure over the years others have mentioned.

[bdm860]

It depends where he went.

If he played for a coach like John Thompson, Dean Smith (even though I know those guys weren't coaching then), Jim Calhoun, Coach K, etc.  I think they would have helped knock some sense into him.

If he pulled an OJ Mayo, I think it wouldn't be any different.

I really think that's one of the things LeBron is missing (which he might actually get with Riley), someone that isn't trying to kiss his butt, but also commands respect.

I just think if John Thompson was his coach, I could see John Thompson calling him the next day chewing his butt out after LeBron walked off the court against the Magic without shaking their hands.

Some of the bigger knuckleheads of the recent past (Sheed, Iverson, Steve Francis)  I think would have been even bigger knuckleheads without their strong coaching role models from college, and although I don't know this for a fact, I believe most of those coaches keep in touch with their players and continue to mentor them even when they're in the NBA.  That's something I think LeBron is sorely lacking (oh ya that and rings  )



Edit:  I think LeBron would still be a big time egomaniac and knucklehead, just a little less so, and I think you'd see a little more class in him.

[indeedproceed]

After the first year they'd say "oh you graduated", Naw, he just decided he was finished.

LeBron would've dominated college ball as a freshmen more than Durant did.

[Moranis]

After the first year they'd say "oh you graduated", Naw, he just decided he was finished.

LeBron would've dominated college ball as a freshmen more than Durant did.

Exactly, he would have been the most dominant college player ever.  He would have shredded college competition just like he did in high school.

[indeedproceed]

After the first year they'd say "oh you graduated", Naw, he just decided he was finished.

LeBron would've dominated college ball as a freshmen more than Durant did.

Exactly, he would have been the most dominant college player ever.  He would have shredded college competition just like he did in high school.

And, he wouldn't have gone to some rinky dink college like he went to an intially rinky dink NBA team (all CLE had was Ricky Davis...if I remember correctly). He would've gone to a program that already had talent. He would've had better than DJ Augustine as a sidekick.

[manl_lui]

he would know the definition to "humble"