"He's probably one of the three or four guys in the league who has his kind of talent and, at the same time, is just a regular guy," Boozer said. "He'll tell a joke. He'll laugh. He'll hang out. Stuff like that. He's likable because he's just a regular dude."

Boozer and James were teammates in Cleveland during the 2003-04 season.

Boozer was in his second year, an emerging star in the league.

James was a rookie, just starting to live up to the Jordan-like hype that had the NBA, its fans and endorsement giants like Nike, Coca-Cola and Microsoft salivating over their future with him.

"He's not somebody who acts bigger than he is," Boozer said. "He's like, the same guy every day. He's very level-headed and he hangs with the guys. He doesn't separate himself from the rest of the team."

According to Boozer, he had a close relationship with James during their year together in Cleveland.

Boozer saw James embrace all of his teammates, however, and those feelings of friendship and respect were returned.

"I definitely think fans pick up on stuff like that," said Boozer, who remembers how James would make a spectacular play or hit a game-winning shot and celebrate by high-fiving the people sitting in the front row.

"Those are the kind of things that help make LeBron LeBron."

James' popularity manifests itself everywhere.

In the just-completed All-Star balloting, he was the top vote-getter. James' total of 2,516,049 votes was more than 64,000 better than runner-up Yao Ming, almost 400,000 more than Kobe Bryant and a half-million more than Dwyane Wade, the most valuable player in last year's NBA Finals.

No other player received two million votes - not Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash or Kevin Garnett.

The Jazz got a taste of James' popularity last season.

Even though he was listed as questionable until game time because of flu-like symptoms, James scored 32 of his 51 points in the second half and led the Cavaliers to a 108-90 victory.

Like in the movie "Rocky IV," when heavyweight Rocky Balboa won over the anti-American crowd with an unfathomable effort against Russian hero Ivan Drago, the fans at the Delta Center were cheering for James in the final minutes.

"It was awesome," he said later. "To have opposing fans cheer for you - it gets no better than that."

Said then-Jazz guard Devin Brown: "I've never seen that before."

James' 19 field goals were more than any Jazz opponent since Hall of Famer Alex English went 22-for-42 from the field in 1984.

"We were intimidated by him," said coach Jerry Sloan.

But the fans embraced him.

Dr. Keith Henschen, a sports psychologist who is a professor at the University of Utah, believes that his popularity results from a perfect storm between James' ability and the time in which he lives.

"First of all," Henschen said, "he's a kid and people like that. They like the idea of this kid performing so well in a man's body. I also think the press has a lot to do with this. Which other star player had his high school on national TV?"

Henschen suggests that the exposure James received on ESPN during his days at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, put him on the fast-track toward his unique popularity.

"He was famous before he left high school," Henschen said. "Really, he's the first one like that. Local people might have know Kobe and others, but not to the extend what we all knew LeBron. . . . He is a function of technology."

Endorsement deals with Nike, Coca-Cola, Microsoft have added to James' visibility and, in turn, his popularity.

"Big companies have promoted him like a superstar - like a young superstar," Henschen said. "He's become more well-known at an earlier age than anyone.

"On the opposite side of that, he's backed it up. Michelle Wei was promoted the same way but has kind of fallen off because she hasn't been able to back it up."

Still, Henschen admits all the publicity and promotion would not translate into much if James wasn't the kind of person that Boozer describes.

"That's the other aspect to it," Henschen said. "He hasn't done anything yet to make himself look bad. But that's a slippery slope for a young athlete.

"Everybody embraced Kobe a few years ago. Now, he's just a basketball player to a lot of people. To some, he's almost a villain. . . . As long as LeBron continued to play basketball and stays clean with the law, he'll be OK."