MIAMI, FL - MAY 31: LeBron James #6 and Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat hug alongside teammate Chris Bosh #1 of the Miami Heat after the Heat defeat the Dallas Mavericks 92-84 in Game One of the 2011 NBA Finals at American Airlines Arena on May 31, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)The defiance, the childish petulance, was gone. LeBron James sat on the dais on the eve of his third NBA Finals Monday and spoke in the same measured, self-assured tone he's carried for much of these playoffs. No gnashing of his fingernails. No giggling with Dwyane Wade. He was, in his own words, "at ease," and that's different from a year ago.
Three hundred sixty-five days earlier, James sat on a similar stage and taunted the world. He had collapsed under the weight of expectations as the Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Miami Heat in the Finals, and his insecurities came pouring out. "All the people that was rooting on me to fail," James said, "at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today."
Laugh at me now, James seemed to tell his critics. You still have to go back to your crummy jobs, your crummy lives. I'm still better than you.
LeBron James is making his third trip to the NBA Finals. (Reuters)
One longtime NBA official, watching the venom spill out of LeBron's mouth that night, shook his head and said what many in the room thought: "He'll never get it."
Now, maybe LeBron does get it. Exactly one year has passed from the end of last season's failure to the start of these Finals, and the 12 months in between have been a journey of introspection. He's a different player, a different person. His focus is sharper. His priorities have changed.
"I played too much to prove people wrong last year," James said.
This, more than any other reason, is why James can finally deliver his first championship. He's changed and so can his Heat. The Oklahoma City Thunder are younger, faster, deeper, more athletic. They've fallen in line behind Kevin Durant and they have home-court advantage. But if James plays with the fury he brought to the Eastern Conference finals? Anything is possible.
For much of the world, James' reconstruction won't be complete until he wins a title. This is his third trip to the Finals in nine seasons. A closet full of MVP trophies is nice, but you can play the role of Buffalo Bills for only so long before even Nike begins to wonder why it's paying you $100 million. These Finals are one more opportunity for LeBron to fulfill his mandate.
"I'm sure he will try to seize it a little bit better than he did the first two times," Wade said.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--lebron-james-returns-to-nba-finals-with-purpose-and-poise.html;_ylt=Apx6OYlsla7Oa5GrFmLccmq8vLYF
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