LeBron James Explains Why He Didn’t Shoot From Mid-Range Early in His Career

As the most explosive and powerful athlete in the NBA for over a decade, LeBron James spent the beginning of his career driving to the rim with reckless abandon. During his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron’s shot diet consisted mostly of paint buckets and three-point attempts. He wasn’t yet an efficient deep-range marksman, but he did take them. Mid-range shots, on the other hand, were rarely featured in James’ arsenal throughout the first half of his career.

With an imposing frame and strength that most forwards couldn’t match, LeBron saw no need to stop inside the lane for a jumper, instead opting to just take it to the hole. Over 75% of the four-time MVP’s field goal attempts came inside the arc before he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018. Boasting a career average of 27 points per game, LeBron saw no reason to fix what wasn’t broken.

Avoiding in-between shots wasn’t something LeBron learned on his own, though. The four-time champion admitted that his youth coaches instilled a mindset that stayed with him, even once he reached the pros. Until age started to catch up with him, James believed taking middies would be settling.

“My little league coach and high school coach, they always told me, ‘Don’t f------ settle! Stop settling!’ And then you got people in the crowd who obviously don’t know basketball like we know basketball, and they tell you to dunk everything,” LeBron shared with a smile on Mind the Game. “Get to the hole, dunk everything.”

In his prime, that may have not seemed like the most unrealistic request for James. During his time in Cleveland and Miami, the 21-time All-Star would routinely throw down four or five dunks a game. Mid-range jumpers simply weren’t a prominent part of his arsenal at the time, with one exception.

“When I entered the league in ’03 … I definitely shot more mid-range my rookie year because there was no spacing,” LeBron admitted. “I was coming off floppies. My first basket that I ever scored in the NBA is off a floppy action to the corner … Fade to the corner, shoot a jumper from the short corner.”

LeBron’s team wouldn’t improve much during his first run with the Cavs, but once he arrived with the Heat, he truly understood the luxury of spacing. With reliable floor spacers like Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier and Ray Allen ready to catch and shoot, James often got whatever shot he wanted in Miami.

“Once you got to Miami, I just feel like the floor, [there] was so much space with [Chris] Bosh shooting the three,” Durant chimed in. “You have more shooters around, why settle? When we played y’all I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna give him this middy, but there’s no way I can stop this man getting to that cup.'”

It wasn’t until a 34-year-old LeBron moved to Los Angeles when he finally embraced the mid-range. While still a top athlete in the sport, his verticality was clearly waning from his best days. As a result, the future Hall of Famer has improvised and improved other parts of his game, which he continued to do even in his 22nd season.

LeBron is posting up and fading away more than he ever has in his career, but it’s working. Even as his most prominent basketball asset slowly slips away from him, James continues to revitalize himself and keep his name in the conversation with the top stars in the NBA.