Lebron James explains the difference between his killer instinct vs. Jordan or Kobe

photo via @Kingjames

Early in LeBron James career, one thing he was knocked for was his lack of “killer instinct.” In a recent interview with ESPN the Magazine, LeBron speaks on how his killer instinct differs from Michael Jordan’s and Kobe’s, and how watching the Discovery channel confirmed for him that it’s ok to hunt differently.

I’ll just put it this way, man. There are different ways to hunt. I watch the Discovery Channel all the time, and you look at all these animals in the wild. And they all hunt a different way to feed their families. They all kill a different way. […]

I hope people will see that there are different ways of winning. And I win by … I don’t want to say doing it my way. I am doing it my way but not in a selfish way. I want to win by having fun and having a brotherhood around me where we all have the same goals — and that’s just going out and winning, man. When I’m having fun, I’m loving the game, and that’s what brings joy to me. [Leans back and smiles] Every now and then my look comes out, though — like Game 6 in Boston [2012]. People say, Why don’t he do that all the time? [laughs] Man, I don’t even … first of all, I have no idea why that look even happened. Somebody took a great photo. The camera was right on time, and he happened to get me when I was a little bit tired and I looked up. Bam! Now, it’s The Look [laughs]. It’s the LeBron Look. The LeBron Face [laughs]. It’s cool, though. It’s cool. Don’t think for one second, though, that I’m not zeroed in on what I need to get done to kill my prey.

Lebron is right. But one of the most overlooked benefits of LeBron making the move to South Beach to me, has always been the benefit of having Dwyane Wade there to help teach him that “edge.” DWade has always played from a position of underdog and actually seems to at times play better with some sort of chip on his shoulder. I believe he helped LeBron find his inner serial killer on the court. Or at the very least, fine tune it.