“The conventional wisdom, though, was that James needed to “grow up” as a player and a teammate in order to win games and the affection of fans. But James was compelled to grow up long ago, way back in his late teens—to become the savior of a unlucky franchise, a torchbearer for several multinational corporations, and the public face of an entire sport. Maybe what we’re remembering now is what sentimental sports fans have always known—that we like our athletes most when they play the game the way that we swear we’d do it if we had the chance. At twenty-eight, it seems, LeBron James is finally old enough to act like a kid.”

Continue reading Ian Crouch on LeBron James’s transformation: http://nyr.kr/XLBY8g

Photograph by David Santiago/AP.

(Source: newyorker.com)

Reeves Wiedeman on the small, smart decisions the New York Knicks made in the wake of Jeremy Lin’s departure: http://nyr.kr/U88uDC

Photograph by Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press/AP.

Last night, the Brooklyn Nets played their first home game at their new arena, the Barclays Center. As meaningless preseason exhibitions go, it was, without question, the most exciting one I’ve ever attended.

Read Reeves Wiedeman on the Barclays Center Experience.

Photograph by John Minchillo/AP.

For this week’s issue, Barry Blitt drew Knicks guard Jeremy Lin in a series of heroic scenarios. We’ll highlight these illustrations in some photosets over the next couple of days. If you can’t wait for the rest, visit: http://nyr.kr/ynqsY6

Prokhorov Raps

And here is Russian oligarch and presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov rapping. A couple of weeks ago, Prokhorov, whom Julia Ioffe wrote about for The New Yorker this week, appeared on “Projector Paris Hilton,” a comedy show on state television that allows itself some mild political satire. The show’s hosts handed Prokhorov a sheet of paper and asked him to rap along about his signature technology product, the ѿ-Mobile. Pronounced “yo-Mobilie,” it sounds roughly like the shorthand for Fuck Mobile to a Russian ear. It also makes for a fun, if corny, conceit for some stiff-jointed rapping.

Everybody But Jeremy Lin

This moment is still Lin’s for as long as he can manage it, but there is an elephant set to rampage through the Garden again soon in the form of Carmelo Anthony. It perhaps says as much about Knicks fans as it does about Anthony that returning one of the five best scorers in the N.B.A. has become something to fear. But there is some reason for concern. The Knicks were also without Amare Stoudamire for four games, and in two games since his return, Stoudamire has taken more shots than any other Knick, and had the worst shooting percentage of any starter. Fans fear that Anthony, who could return from injury tonight, or during Sunday’s nationally televised game against the Mavericks, will only add to the problem. The Knicks are also adding J. R. Smith, a pure scorer who had been exiled to China for the season. The fear is that they will somehow screw up the team’s mojo. But note well: of these six Lin-led wins, only one, against the Lakers, has come against a team with a winning record. Eleven of the Knicks’ next fourteen games are against probable playoff teams. You don’t beat Miami and Chicago and San Antonio with Steve Novak and Jared Jeffries—even with Jeremy Lin. The Knicks need Carmelo, for better and worse.

Celebrating the return of the N.B.A. with this 1951 Abe Birnbaum cover. Which game are you most excited to watch today?

The Year in Sports

“Most sports writing,” Richard Ford once wrote, “operates at a disadvantage—the disadvantage being that it’s about sports,” which, he added, “is simply not a very serious human pursuit.” Ford is, of course, the author of a terrific novel called “The Sportswriter,” which is not much about sports or sportswriting and plenty about more essential human pursuits. Yet a review of the past year in sports might suggest that the unserious genre is acquiring some gravitas at last.

- Ben McGrath writes about the year’s biggest sports stories: http://nyr.kr/tSnkiq

Photograph by Lauren Lancaster. See more of Lancaster’s Penn State photographs at Photo Booth.

(Above, a screen shot of the National Basketball Players Association website)

A new phrase entered the pro-basketball playbook on Monday when the players’ union announced that it would file a “disclaimer of interest,” instantly renouncing its role as a bargaining entity and thus making way for an antitrust lawsuit to move forward against the team owners in federal court. That could lead to months of litigation, putting the remainder of the 2011-2012 season in serious jeopardy.

- Ian Crouch on basketball’s nuclear winter: http://nyr.kr/umCm8o