Video: LeBron James plays summer league game, wows crowd

Posted on | Sunday, July 31, 2011 | No Comments

As every NBA fan knows, LeBron James is a big stupid loser. He still matters as much as any player in the league, though, so we tend to care when he does something surprising.

That's why people cared when LeBron stopped by the Drew League in Los Angeles on Saturday for a game. Except he didn't just watch -- he decided to play, too. Yahoo!'s Marc Spears was there:

"Seeing him on that court in this community with those kids and the impact he made in that hour and a half of play, this was by far the best day we've had in the Drew League," Drew League director Dino Smiley told Yahoo! Sports.

Smiley said he received a call Thursday from a representative for�Cleveland Cavaliers�guard�Baron Davis�saying�a major NBA star was attending Saturday. Smiley initially thought it could be�Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose�or�Blake Griffin.�Kevin Durant,�Ron Artest�and�Derrick Williams�have already played this summer.

Smiley eventually received another call Saturday afternoon revealing that James was coming to the Leon H. Washington Park gym near the neighborhood of Watts. James arrived shortly after in a SUV. He was wearing a T-shirt and khaki shorts, and was joined by an entourage of about a half dozen people including Davis. To Smiley's surprise, James wanted to play. James was given a No. 2 jersey for a team called "Cheaters II."

"I thought LeBron was coming just to hang out, but he asked for a uniform," Smiley said. "The crowd was just electrified when he walked in."

The video above proves that they were excited for good reason. James impressed with his usual all-around game of dunks, jumpers, lay-ins, passes, and blocked shots. Plus, he did it all for a team called Cheaters II, which turns the whole thing into some bizarro alternate basketball universe.

At this point in his career, fans and writers tend to discuss LeBron more as a mess of failed expectations and missed opportunities rather than as a basketball player. These highlights are useful, then, for proving that when you strip away everything else, it can be pretty darn fun to watch him play basketball. The Drew League isn't the NBA Finals, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

(Video via EOB)

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