WATCH: Looking back at LeBron James' 25-point NBA debut
Times have changed but you could see the greatness of LeBron James, even in his first regular-season game as a pro in the NBA.
This popped up on NBA Reddit Sunday, and I couldn't help but break it down. Here's video of LeBron James' 42-minute (!), 25 point, nine-assist performance in his NBA debut back in 2003.
Some things stand out in retrospect:
•You see a lot of the same mannerisms. He still does the blowing into his hands one at a time thing. The way he dunks is the way he dunks now. It's cool to see how he's still the same guy, even 12 years later.
•His gait seems much longer. Part of that is how much muscle he seems to have added, but here's he's like a gazelle, bounding up court, vs. just a few years later when he looks like the freight train we've come to know him as. Some notes on this video, time log for the video itself, not game-time.
•0:24 seconds: He peels off the curl and gets a spot-up jumper. He no longer gets those, hardly ever, because the defense is going to jump every time to close that off. You'll notice a lot of differences in the way the Kings guard him as a rookie vs. the kind of respect he draws now.
•0:32 seconds: Again, the defense gets hung up and dares him to make them pay. You can tell Vlade Divac was like "I'm not chasing this 18-year-old out for a fadeaway jumper." It's also really crazy how wet James' jumper was in this game, considering that would be his biggest limitation for almost a decade. He shot 4-of-9 on mid-range shots in this game. Set the bar kind of high on multiple levels.
•1:11: You see how the Kings don't step up to meet him coming up the floor? Nowadays he gets tagged at the arc and if he gets to the free-throw line, the big is always looking to take the charge on him. Ironically, Vlade didn't do enough in this game to try and flop and draw calls on him.
•1:30: Yup, that looks like LeBron James.
•1:40: Everyone's amazed at James ... and the Cavs trail by eight. Man, those early Cavs teams were rough, despite Ricky Davis and Carlos Boozer. No really, those guys were considered among his better teammates, along with Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Darius Miles started, for crying out loud. Kings lead.
•2:05: Oh, hey, Jim Gray! You spoke to LeBron James one-on-one, huh? Guess what? Won't be your most famous conversation it turns out!
•3:02: Yeah, one might say LeBron's fashion sense has evolved somewhat since he was 19.
•3:27: Oh, the 3-pointer falls, which is cruel since he'll go on to shoot 29 percent from the arc that season and it will be a liability really until 2009.
•3:37: He's so awkward in his first halftime interview! You watch him now and he just runs through the bullet-points in his head. It's like he's reading off a prompter. He's an expert interview subject at this point, but here he's just an awkward teenager trying to sound confident.
•5:02: I understand he's done it a million times but still, that pass! What is that pass?!
•5:45: Interestingly, he goes middle off that left-side ISO. Nowadays, he usually goes left.
Overall, you can see the greatness coming. It's also fun listening to the announcers freak out about him.
