Catch a rising star

I am not a big LeBron James fan. In fact, I have been critical of him in the past columns or in newspaper articles. But of late, I've got a better appreciation for LBJ and that isn't because he won last season's NBA MVP Award. The simple truth there is... he's growing as a person and as a player. And for one of such prodigious talents, how can I not watch or even pay attention?

In recent weeks, I've been trying to catch up on my reading and this book, when I first saw it on the shelf, attracted me. I went back and forth for weeks until I finally decided to plunk down some moolah to get the hardcover book.

I guess having Buzz Bissinger in there to make sense of everything was a huge selling point. Buzz in case you've been living in the caves with Osama Bin Laden, is the author of the masterful Friday Night Lights. So I told myself I had to pick this one up.

I didn't think that he'd write it like that football story of the Odessa Panthers because this is a basketball tale to begin with. 

I also had to unload my expectations following my read of Grant Wahl's The Beckham Experiment that was worth my time. And LeBron's storytelling is simple, honest, and well, it flows seamlessly. Like The Beckham Experiment, I understood a lot of things after having read it. With Shooting Stars, you will understand why James' game is like this -- when he'd rather pass than shoot.