By Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel –
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — LeBron James swung for the fences this year. He now has his grand slam.
With the United States’ 107-100 victory Sunday over Spain in the Olympic gold-medal game in London, James became just the second player to be named NBA regular-season and NBA Finals Most Valuable Player while also winning NBA and Olympic championships in the same year, something previously only accomplished by Michael Jordan, in 1992 with the original Dream Team.
“It has been a great ride for me. I could have never scripted it this way,” James said. “I’ve had many dreams about it, winning an NBA championship and then following it up with a gold medal.”
On the way to Sunday’s gold, James passed Jordan for second place on the United States’ all-time Olympic scoring list, his 273 points now behind only the 280 of David Robinson.
James said Sunday was not about him or his year, but the golden moment itself.
“This is all about U-S-A,” he said moments after it was over.
It was a resounding punctuation for the Heat forward in his march to the top of the basketball universe, overcoming foul trouble Sunday with an emphatic dunk and 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to put away a game the United States led by only one point at both halftime and the end of the third quarter.
“I just wanted to try to make an imprint on the game,” he said.
He did just that.
“He’s a basketball genius,” NBC commentator and 76ers coach Doug Collins said.
From NBA villain after leaving the Cavaliers as a free agent in July 2010, James now finds himself world champion in the truest sense.
“People like him again,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who served as an Olympic commentator for NBC. “It’s OK again to cheer for LeBron, not in Boston, but in other places.”
Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski said it is not out of place to mention James in the same breath as Jordan.
“What a year. NBA champ. MVP. Gold medal,” Krzyzewski said.
James closed Sunday’s game with 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists, leading the United States in assists in their 8-0 Olympic run.
“I am happy to be in a position where I can say I had something to do with us being back on top,” he said.
Thunder forward Kevin Durant led the United States with 30 points, with Lakers guard Kobe Bryant adding 17. Pau Gasol, Bryant’s Lakers teammate, led Spain with 24 points.
It was the 14th Olympic men’s basketball gold medal for the United States, with James and New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony joining Robinson as the only three-time U.S. men’s basketball medalists, each with two gold and a bronze.
After guard Juan-Carlos Navarro drew Spain within 97-91, James followed with his dunk and a 3-pointer with 1:59 to play, putting the United States up 102-93.
“I have seen him grow immensely,” Krzyzewski said. “He is the best player and he is the best leader, and he is as smart as anyone playing the game right now.”
Whether James goes — or even can go — for a third gold medal remains somewhat in doubt, with the NBA pushing basketball’s international ruling body, FIBA, for a future 23-and-under format for Olympic play. Such an approach is not expected in time for the 2016 Brazil Games, when James will be 31.
“I have no idea,” he said of 2016. “I’m not even thinking about that right now.”
James originally was to be accompanied to London by Heat championship teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Wade and Bosh, however, both withdrew from the Olympics due to injuries that were exacerbated during a Heat championship run that did not end until June 21. Two weeks later, James reported to Olympic training camp, with the national team since. He now has less than seven weeks before the Heat open training camp in late September.
“This is the reason,” he said, “why I came to be a part of this team, to have this bouquet of flowers and a gold medal.”
James, Wade and Bosh won Olympic gold in the 2008 Beijing Games, when James still was with the Cavaliers, Bosh with the Raptors. James becomes the fourth player to win Olympic gold while a member of the Heat, joining Wade, as well as Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, who did it in the 2000 Sydney Games.
