When you think of LeBron’s pregame ritual, you probably think of the chalk toss he stole from MJ.
But music is part of it, too, long before he takes the court. It’s that way with a lot of players. They sit at their locker wearing Beats by Dre listening to whatever and getting into a zone. (We’re not totally sure where Andray Blatche’s zone is located, but he is in it.)
Before the Heat went out and rolled the Mavericks Thursday LeBron didn’t go with the headphones, he wanted everyone in his zone and so he blasted the music in the locker room — and this wasn’t some wussy Pandora Coldplay station either. This is music to make you want to do violence to others. From Michael Wallace of ESPN’s Heat Index.About 90 minutes before Thursday’s home game against the Dallas Mavericks, LeBron James walked over to the stereo system in the Miami Heat’s locker room, inserted his music device and pumped up the volume loud enough to send vibrations through a nearby dry-erase board.
There was Wu-Tang Clan’s “Bring The Pain.”
Then came Jay-Z’s “Reservoir Dogs.”
By the time a compilation of DMX’s greatest hits blasted through the speakers, James had pounded and paced himself into a sweat-lathered, rhythmic routine that more resembled a boxer preparing for a big fight than a basketball player anxiously hoping to lead his team onto the court and out of a slump.
LeBron promptly went out and was the best player on the court. If he plays like that every night not only can he pump all the ‘90s hip-hop he wants Erik Spoelstra will go out and buy him some iTunes gift cards to get more.
From the “one should know one’s limits” school of writing, I’m not going to try to break down the tracks and any significance — Mike Prada does that very well over at SBN. Go read that.
Just remember we don’t want you actually doing violence to other humans. Not even the Mavericks.
