NBA: LeBron on Finals 2011: “Casey made me this player”

LeBron James spoke about Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey after winning game 2. With his defensive plan in the 2011 finals, he had helped James to develop into a better player.

Casey was the 2011 assistant coach of Rick Carlisle, who had won the championship with Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks against the Miami Heat with LeBron James. Casey was then the defensive coordinator responsible for defending the Mavs.

“I wasn’t as good a player then as I am today,” said LeBron at the press conference after game 2. Dwane developed a game plan against me that took away my strengths and forced me to do things I wasn’t so good at. So he’s one of the reasons why I’m the player I am today.”

At that time, Miami lost the final series 2-4 and LeBron James only scored 17.8 points on average. In the current postseason he gets 34.4 points and 55 percent out of the field – and recently he beat Casey’s Raptors from half distance with a lot of fadeaways. For example, he had never had such litters in his repertoire in 2011.