The infectious emotion of LeBron James

I had the rare opportunity Wednesday night to attend a Cavs game as a fan. Took my daughters and a friend of theirs, sat back, watched the game and laughed through every minute as the girls completely enjoyed the show during timeouts.

The Cavs don't give a lot of time for silent reflection during games, but when you see three soon-to-be 13 year-olds (yikes!) enjoying every minute of the goofy videos and dance routines, you get why things are as they are. For the record, the girls did make the big screen during "sign cam" with their homemade placards. Janie's read "Where 23 happens," Elizabeth's said, "23 4 MVP." Not bad on both their parts, eh? Their friend Sydney went with the basic but always apropos: "Let's go Cavaliers."

At any rate, what impressed me during this game – besides quite simply how good this team is – was the pure enjoyment LeBron James took from the game. Some guys sleep through blowouts and when it comes time to sit out the fourth quarter they check out. We've all seen the blank looks from some guys during the waning moments of easy wins.

Not the Cavs, and definitely not LeBron.

We've all seen the video and photo of him windmilling his arm and doing an air guitar after a Ben Wallace dunk (if you haven't seen it, it's to the left). There was so much more.

Every time one of his teammates made a big play, James was off the bench to celebrate. After one Daniel Gibson drive and score, James got up and wiggled his way through what looked like an improvised dance down the baseline. My daughters laughed with every move – and he's got good ones. During the timeout after the Wallace dunk, James stood the entire time, clapping in rhythm to the music, bobbing and stepping and leading the crowd as it danced and celebrated. Is it any wonder there's such a home-court advantage for this team?

James is so mature and so good it's sometimes easy to forget he's only 24 years old. But during Wednesday's game the main emotion that came through from him was joy. Joy at being on this team, joy at playing where he does and joy at enjoying his teammates.  He seemed to be enjoying every single minute. During pregame, one of my daughters pointed out how he was dancing at the three-point line – and eventually got Gibson to join him.

Some of these celebrations can be over the top. And I recognize I got on Braylon Edwards for his air guitar routine during the Browns season, but now I'm laughing at James' air guitar. But here's the difference: Edwards caught the first touchdown pass for the Browns four games into the season when the team was 0-3. James has actually … well … accomplished something. Plus, James respects the game; he respects his coaches, his teammates and his opponents (with a couple exceptions).

He's headed to the MVP Award. He sets up his teammates. He apparently chatters a lot on team planes – one fact my daughters noticed was when Gibson said during a timeout that James talks on the plane more than anyone, and Gibson said it shaking his head and laughing. He enjoys his teammates' success in a blowout fourth quarter. And when the game ended, the first thing he did was stand and wave to the Washington bench, an NBA show of sportsmanship to Caron Butler, Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison (but not DeShawn Stevenson).  The Cavs are 38-1 at home and doing things teams have never done or have not done in decades. And LeBron James is enjoying every minute of it.

When James acts that way and enjoys the game that way, everyone does. His team, the crowd, everyone. The results are evident.

I keep coming back to the same point: How lucky are we to be able to enjoy it?

Tagged as: LeBron James