Basketball Einstein

The genius of LeBron

Issac Baldizon / NBAE / Getty Images

LeBron James of the Miami Heat looks on while playing against the Indiana Pacers in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2013 NBA Playoffs on June 3, 2013.

Lebron James is a genius. you may be thinking that "genius athlete" is some kind of contradiction. Suggesting that athletes are as cerebral as physicists solving cosmic mysteries or as creative as modern-day Mozarts seems like a stretch. LeBron James is LeBron James because he's a chiseled, large, freakishly fast specimen who has mastered the fundamental skills of basketball: dribbling, shooting and passing. Big muscles require no genius. Let's reserve that term for the brainiacs.

Wrong. Athletes must process multiple streams of information in real time under extreme pressure. While a mathematician puzzles out a groundbreaking proof, 300-lb. linemen aren't chasing...

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