James learned from bench in 2004

BEIJING — The first time I interviewed LeBron James, I was working at The Sporting News and James was 16 years old and still tearing up both the basketball court and the gridiron.

That was before he became the Next Big Thing, before he signed the huge Nike deal, basically before he became "King James."

So it's fascinating for me to watch James at work with the media here in Beijing at the Summer Olympics, and to hear what he will talk about openly and what he won't address.

On Wednesday before the U.S. team practiced at Beijing Normal University, we got some of the former.

Someone asked what it was like to ride the pine in 2004 at the Athens Games. Listen to his response.

Keep in mind that LeBron played well in Athens, he just didn't play a lot. The story, I'm told by people who were there, goes that U.S. coach Larry Brown had a habit of yanking James after he'd make a string of great defensive and/or offensive plays.