Heat teammates unfazed by shots at LeBron

[Flash]

 

 

MIAMI (AP) -- When it comes to LeBron James, the Miami Heat are more concerned about W's than Q's.

 

With training camp less than two weeks away, many of James' new teammates either insist they're not paying attention to the steady stream of critics who continue denouncing how the NBA's two-time reigning MVP's made his decision to join the Heat, or say they believe it'll all give him plenty of motivation for the coming season.

 

In the two months or so since James left Cleveland for Miami, his "Q Score" -- the measure of how something or someone appeals to a broad audience -- has taken a big hit. But as long as the Heat put up big wins, no one around the team will likely care, or probably even notice how anyone inside the locker room is perceived nationally.

 

"We'll take it as a challenge," Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who also left Cleveland for Miami this summer, said Thursday. "We'll get everybody's best shot every game, but that only happens to good teams for a reason. So you have to take the good with the bad and just roll with it. We'll use it as a motivation, obviously. It's going to be an interesting year."

 

James has been working out in Miami at times this summer, but was not part of a voluntary session with several teammates Thursday.

 

He has seen his former No. 23 jerseys burned in Cleveland this summer, been called a quitter by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, even had his competitiveness questioned by Orlando general manager Otis Smith. And on a Dallas radio show earlier this week, outspoken Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said James may have "lost a billion dollars in brand equity, give or take a couple bucks here or there."

 

By now, many Heat players are just starting to tune naysayers out. Or trying to, anyway.

 

<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> "I think they're making it a bigger deal than what it is," Miami point guard Carlos Arroyo said of the buzz - much of it negative -- about James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the rest of the new-look Heat. "We're going to have a lot of distractions and our focus should be winning a championship. That's why they came here. Other than that, we shouldn't focus on what people are talking about because we knew there were going to be critics who attacked us that way."

 

The perception of James differs wildly, depending on perspective.

 

 

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/09/16/heat-james.ap/index.html?ls=nbahpheadlines