Giant Steps

That incredible potential was apparent during his freshman season. So was his significant inexperience when it came to the details of the game. Running, shooting, dunking and blocking shots are stock standards at the college level. Nuances such as proper defensive angles and absorbing contact take far longer to master.

“You’re always harder on yourself,” James told reporters earlier this week. “I feel like I was frustrated. Just a lot of anger, a lot of frustration upon myself knowing I could do a lot more.”For James, the primary obstacle in moving from high school to the college ranks was adjusting to the speed of the game, and not necessarily just the pace on the hardwood.

“In high school, there’s someone there holding your hand,” James said. “In college, you’re on a team full of grown men and you’ve got to figure it out. Yeah, your teammates are there to help you along, but they can’t help you that long because they’ve got to go. It’s a game; you’ve got to play.”

Roy Williams provided James with plenty of opportunities early in the season to make the transition. In his first 23 games (including three starts), James averaged 2.7 points and 2.9 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per contest. Once UNC went small, however, his minutes plummeted. James played just 22 minutes over the final 13 games of the season, including one minute in UNC”s two NCAA Tournament games.

The toughest part of his short tenure at UNC thus far has come in elevating his mental game to match his physique.“I have the physical tools to be a NBA superstar one day,” James said. “Big person, can run the floor, physical. I like contact. But along with those physical skills, you need to have a mental part of the game as well.”

Williams instructed James during their postseason evaluation to calm down, take his time and be the player the 11th-year UNC head coach recruited. A significant part of that process involves carrying a necessary amount of confidence to move past the nervousness that was gripping at times last season.

“Have you ever heard the saying. ‘Confidence is like deodorant; if you don’t have it on, you stink?’” James said. “That’s what it is. The only thing you can do is build confidence… Confidence comes with the amount of work you put in.”

The West Palm Beach, Fla. product’s ability to work in the gym has been limited, however, due to offseason medical procedures to clean out calcification in both knees. The nagging injuries had plagued him even before arriving in Chapel Hill and were present daily as James felt pain whenever running and jumping.While he’s working his way back into playing shape – he said he had no pain after last Monday’s pickup game – his absence proved to be beneficial for his understanding of the game.

“You get to stop and take a step back and analyze the game from a whole different perspective,” James said, adding that Marvin Williams and Rasheed Wallace have offered insight this summer. “You just see so much you wouldn’t normally see while playing.”

Most freshmen post players encounter an offseason workout regiment intent on increasing strength and hands free access, but that hasn’t been the case for James, who has maintained or possibly even dropped his body fat percentage since enrolling at 260 pounds last summer. Gaining or losing weight hasn’t been a topic of conversations during workouts with strength and conditioning coach Jonas Sahratian.

A week after Deen's admission of using racial slurs in the past surfaced in a discrimination lawsuit, pop culture watchers, experts in managing public relations nightmares and civil rights stalwarts who have tried to help other celebrities in her position see a long, bumpy road ahead.

They also see a week full of missteps and believe the queen of comfort food reacted too slowly to her latest controversy at a time when hours count. They say it could take years, if she can make it back at all to the earning power she has enjoyed.

"Paula Deen has, I would say, taken an irreparable hit because she had this appearance of being more or less a nice older woman who cooks food that's bad for you. That in her own way sort of made her lovable," said Janice Min, editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles.

"But this presents a whole other picture of, 'Wow, maybe she's just an old racist white southern woman.' That image is hard to shake off for a large chunk of people," Min added.

So far, what could go wrong pretty much has, said Larry Kopp, president of The TASC Group, a communications firm for sports figures and celebrities with experience in high-profile, racially charged cases. His current clients include the family of black teen Trayvon Martin, whose shooter, George Zimmerman, is on trial for second-degree murder.

Deen, 66, and her brother, Bubba Hiers, are being sued by Lisa Jackson, a former manager of the restaurant they own in Savannah, Ga. Jackson accused them last year of sexual harassment and a hostile environment of innuendo and racial slurs.According to a transcript of Deen's deposition, an attorney for Jackson asked Deen if she has ever used the N-word."Yes, of course," Deen replied, though she added: "It's been a very long time." And she said she doesn't use the word anymore.

She bailed on the "Today" show on Friday, instead posting a series of criticized YouTube apologies. She was dropped by the Food Network the same day.An apology, at this point, isn't enough, said Dara Busch, executive vice president and managing director of Rubenstein Associates in New York, a top PR company.

"It will take years for her to fix how she will be viewed by the African American community. She has to find ways to prove that she's not that way any longer," said Busch.Howard Rubenstein, who founded Busch's firm and is known as a damage control guru, helped facilitate Richards' apologies to the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson after the comedian was caught on video using the N-word and making a lynching reference onstage against a black heckler. Rubenstein declined an interview.

Deen has already surpassed the actor in the apology department, said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League who has met regularly with John Galliano after the fashion designer's inebriated rants about Hitler were caught on video.

"Mel Gibson really never apologized. There's this apology, 'If I offended anybody, I didn't mean it.' That doesn't go anywhere. You have to be specific. What, where, who. Mel Gibson never really stepped up to the plate," Foxman said by telephone Monday while on a trip to Jerusalem.

Galliano, who recently sat down with Charlie Rose for a rare interview, has studied Jewish history with rabbis, owned up to addiction and tried to atone, Foxman said, yet he's struggling as Richards is to make it back professionally.Will Deen follow up with action to back up her apologetic words?

"I want to believe her, that she's not that way anymore," Foxman said. "It used to be very simple rules: You say something that's offensive, that's hurtful and there's a formal apology, an explanation, and depending how severe it is, you do a good deed, you volunteer, whatever. There used to be a clear path. It used to be over. That was before the Internet."

While Galliano was always considered a bad boy on the job, Deen's ability to earn a living depends on a squeaky clean, though cheeky, reputation despite her hiding her diabetes for years, then signing on as a paid endorser of a drug for the condition while continuing to cook up deep-fried everything on TV.

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