Magic Johnson was a will owy, 6-8, 215-pounder as an NBA rookie in 1979 at age 19. This was years before a bloated, debauched, "Dorian Gray" Magic was playing point guard at 250 pounds in his final season.

But Magic also played power forward as a rookie. His lack of weight seemed to make him ill-suited for the "4" (power forward, in playbook terms,) in contrast to his height, which had revolutionized the position of "1," or point guard.

The Philadelphia 76ers, however, couldn't keep him off the offensive boards in the NBA Finals. Magic got a lot of publicity for jumping (not "playing") center in the clinching game, but it was his work in the trenches as a power forward that took the Sixers' heart away.

Cavaliers savior presumptive LeBron James, 18, is even bigger than first thought - 6-7?, 245 pounds, when weighed and measured at the NBA's Chicago Pre-Draft Camp. So, maybe it will work out the way it did for Magic, only with a twist. Maybe James' weight can revolutionize the "1," in a body that seems chiseled for work at "4."

It could happen, just as Cavaliers General Manager Jim Paxson thinks it will. Odds are, James won't be defending the other team's point guard most of the time, anyway. The Cavs seem to want him at the point, so, after some time to mesh his gears, that's where he'll be. True, James never brought the ball up the court in high school against significant pressure. If you put him into rigid categories, you would think he's a jack of all trades and a master of none: doesn't handle well enough to be a "1," shoot well enough to be a "2" (the "shooting" guard), or post up well enough to be a "3" (small forward). But that misses the big picture.