LeBron's role on Team USA?

By LUCIANA CHAVEZ - McClatchy Newspapers

BEIJING --
USA men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff did not appoint a team captain for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

LeBron James fancies himself the man for the job.

Helping the U.S. saunter undefeated into Friday's semifinal showdown with defending Olympic champion Argentina, James has not just embraced his role as the quarterback of the U.S. defense, which has decimated opponents in Beijing, or his desire to be heard on the court and in the locker room.

He has put a chokehold on those things.

James may have appointed himself but that's the point: He took the initiative amongst his peers, all NBA all-stars, on the U.S. team.

That's different than doing the same with the 11 Cavaliers who trail after the Nike pitchman and one-time "Saturday Night Live" host in Cleveland.

"I knew it had to come from someone," James said. "No matter how good we are as individuals, if you don't have a leader, it's not going to be right. I just took that responsibility from day one."

On the court, through six Olympic games, James leads the U.S. in scoring (15.8 per game), steals (16) and blocked shots (seven) and ranks second in rebounds (31) and assists (25).

Off the court, he has cajoled his teammates, reminding Dwight Howard to push himself more and telling Kobe Bryant to quit gambling so much for steals.

He's also demonstrated how to correctly calibrate that special brand of American swagger for an international audience eager to see them act like idiots and disrespect the game.

James has acted like he cares. When Aussie big man Mark Worthington set down Carmelo Anthony with a hard foul Wednesday, James rushed to Anthony's defense.

James is a physical freak of nature who is emphasizing the physical part here in Beijing, grabbing steal after steal and throwing down dunk after dunk with power.

It seems like because he's working hard on defense, no one begrudges him the monster dunks.

Someone asked him the other day why his plays have looked so nasty here in Beijing.

"Did it look nasty?" James asked, a trifle too innocently. "Yeah, that was nasty. It felt good, too."

"For me to lead 11 other superstars, I have to kind of have that chip on my shoulder," James said.

Like any good leader, he also knows when to take a gentler approach. Before the games, James gave each of his teammates a new set of "Beats by Dr. Dre" headphones.

"(I did it), for one, because they all wanted them when they saw me with them," said James, who hooked the players up with help from rapper/producer Dr. Dre and music industry executive Jimmy Iovine.

"And it's a team camaraderie thing for me. I'm all about team. The easiest thing to do to bring a team together is to give them a gift. We all love gifts."

James said he would not have been capable of asserting himself, with Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and Tayshaun Prince, the only NBA champions on this squad, or veterans such as Jason Kidd or Michael Redd, or even close friends like Wade and Anthony or peers like Dwight Howard.

"Two or three years ago, no. Last year, maybe," he said. "I think it began last summer at the FIBA Americas tournament when we won."

James started making the transition from basketball phenom to veteran in 2004. That year, he was a late addition to an unprepared group that won bronze at the Athens Olympics, losing to Argentina in the semifinals.

James said that squad made it to the semifinals on skill alone.

"We didn't play well. We didn't have a leader. This team has a totally different feel," he said.

"It wasn't a great experience for me. I was 19 years old. I thought I was good enough to be playing but I wasn't (playing). I was away from home for 37 days and not doing what I love to do, so it was hard."

Since then, he has lifted three Cleveland teams to playoff berths the past three seasons, including to the NBA Eastern Conference finals in 2007.

James said he's a better basketball player than he was four years ago in Athens.

"Mentally and emotionally," he said. "Every game I go out there, I don't want it to be my last time, so I'm focused."

James has not played his life like a poker hand. He aims to be a successful businessman so he has sought out the help and friendship of entrepreneur extraordinaire Warren Buffet. He wants NBA titles like Bryant, Prince and Wade so he gleans what he can about them from the past three years he has spent with the national team.

"We are all our team's superstars back in the league so when we come here we give up ourselves for the team," Howard said. "It's good for all of us. ... It's been fun to watch these guys and get to know what to do when I get back to my team."

James isn't the only one who acts as a leader on the U.S. team. Kidd, Wade and Bryant all will assert themselves depending on the situation. Is that because James and those players need to lead or because the team needs them to lead?

"It's' a little bit of both," Wade said. "We have a lot of leaders on this team. LeBron is a vocal leader but he can lead by example, too. We have different ones but we need all of them."

James last won a big title his senior year at St. Vincent-St. Mary's High in Akron, Ohio, in 2003. He hasn't yet had the personnel around him to win an NBA title. An Olympic medal would trump both several times over.

"It would be the biggest thing that ever happened to me in basketball," James, 23, said.

The gold medal would fill a void for James, who knows titles turn great NBA players into the singular stars of the game.

"Absolutely, but this is separate from the NBA," James said. "This means a lot more to me than an NBA title because I'm representing my country. I approach each game like it's the last. So I'm trying to play it the right way."