LeBron James Provides an Interesting Explanation for Why He Shoots Right-Handed

LeBron James is left-handed, but he shoots the basketball with his right hand. He explained why on Friday night.

LeBron James during Game 3 against the Raptors.
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Image via USA TODAY Sports/John E. Sokolowski

LeBron James during Game 3 against the Raptors.

It’s pretty difficult for LeBron James to surprise people anymore, seeing as how he’s pulled off just about every move there is to pull off on the basketball court. But during Game 3 of the Cavaliers’ playoff series against the Raptors on Friday night, LeBron did something that you don’t see him do very often towards the end of the game. He took not one but two left-handed shots and made them both.

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People were impressed:

For those who somehow don’t know this, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see LeBron shoot with his left hand since he’s actually left-handed. He writes and eats with his left hand. But he has obviously spent his entire basketball career shooting right-handed. So after the game against the Raptors, LeBron was asked why he shoots with his right hand rather than his left, and he provided a pretty interesting answer for it. It seems he simply decided he was going to be a righty when he was younger because he grew up watching guys like Michael Jordan and Penny Hardaway who shot with their right hands.

"The reason I’m a right-handed basketball player, I think, is probably Michael Jordan or Penny Hardaway, guys I looked up to growing up," he said. "Seeing those guys shooting righty, I was like, 'I guess I’ll shoot righty.' But I’m pretty much a left-handed guy. I don’t take many of those shots, but I’m capable of making those shots. I don’t know, I just work on my craft. I work on both hands."

LeBron continued by giving a shout out to his first ever basketball coach and then finished things off by explaining that he sometimes wishes that he would have stuck with shooting left-handed.

"My Little League coach Frank Walker told me, 'If you can’t make a left-handed layup, then you’re not going to be much of anything of a basketball player.' He was the first one to teach me how to make a left-handed layup without even dribbling the ball," he said. "I just had to take two steps, get my feet right, left foot down, right foot down, make a left-handed layup. That was the first practice I’ve ever had playing organized basketball. And from that point on, I’ve worked on it every single day. But I have no idea why I became a righty. I just thought I guess it looked cool. Until I got older and I wish I was a lefty because those shots look a lot better than our righties."

Whether he’s shooting with his right or left hand, LeBron is getting the job done against the Raptors. The Cavaliers hold a commanding 3-0 series lead after winning easily on Friday night and look like they’re headed back to the Eastern Conference Finals for a matchup against either the Celtics or Wizards.

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