LeBron James: 5 Things We've Learned about LeBron Since the King Left Cleveland

When LeBron and company take their talents back to Cleveland on Friday night to face the Cavaliers, it will be exactly 591 days, or precisely 851,040 minutes since LeBron decided to take his talents to South Beach.

In those 591 days, the Cleveland Cavaliers have struggled to remain relevant in the Eastern Conference, accumulating a 29-80 record since LeBron bolted from his hometown.

Miami on the other hand has thrived, reaching the 2011 NBA Finals and recording an impressive 81-31 record since forming the Big Three in South Beach.

One thing we've learned in those 591 days is that LeBron is an absolute difference maker, no matter where his talents are.

What else have we learned about the self-proclaimed Chosen One over the span of those 591 days?  Has LeBron matured on and off the court, and is he better off in Miami than he would have been had he stayed in Cleveland?  The answers to those questions are in the slides ahead.

Read on to find out what we've learned about LeBron James since he decided to take his talents down south.  

LeBron Has Finally Embraced the Role of NBA's Most Hated Villain

LeBron James is the sixth most hated professional athlete, according to a poll conducted by Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research, published by Forbes.  While LeBron isn't the most hated basketball player on the list, that honor goes to Nets' Kris Humphries, there's no doubting that fans love to hate him.

The hatred, angst and disrespect of NBA fans in every city other than Miami is something that LeBron James has had to deal with ever since joining the Heat, and it isn't something that's going to change any time soon.

For the first time since leaving Cleveland, LeBron has finally stopped trying fight the villain label that's become associated with his name.  In an interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols, before the start of the 2011-12 NBA season, LeBron had this to say about the mentality he now brings to the game:

"I'm getting back to loving the game, and having fun with the game.  It [being a villain] was a situation I had never been in before, and it took a long time to adjust to it."

It's clear that LeBron, this year, has finally come to terms with the fact that he can't change how people perceive him and his actions.  LeBron is getting back to playing basketball for the love of the game, instead of trying to prove people wrong.

All that LeBron can control is his production on the court, and he's clearly come to terms with that by averaging 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game on the year, with a league leading PER of 32.39.

LeBron is the villain of the NBA, and he's finally come to terms with that.  

LeBron Is a More Efficient and Complete Player with Legitimate Talent Around Him

LeBron James has always been one of the most complete and efficient players in the NBA, even when he was donning a No. 23 Cleveland Cavaliers jersey.  Over the span of his nine-year NBA career, LeBron has led the league in PER (player efficiency rating) five times, but he's never played at the level of efficiency that he's playing at this year.

LeBron's PER of 32.39 is an impressive 5.54 ahead of the next closest player, Chris Paul, who has a PER of only 26.85.  The reason that LeBron is playing at the most efficient level of his career isn't necessarily just because of how great a player he is.  It's in large part due to the fact that LeBron finally has true talent around him, and he's had significant time to build chemistry with that talent.

In Cleveland, the best talent the Cavs' front office could get LeBron was an overrated Mo Williams in 2008, an elderly Shaquille O'Neal and an aging Antwan Jamison in 2009.  While LeBron still managed to play efficiently in those MVP seasons, he's playing the most efficient and complete basketball of his career this year in South Beach.

The reason why LeBron is playing at such an impressive level this year is because of the talent that he has around him.  The Miami Heat did what the Cavaliers never could, and that was to give LeBron elite talent to work with.

Watching LeBron play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh has to leave the Cavaliers wondering something to the tune of, "what if we had actually signed the kind of talent LeBron wanted all along?" 

We could argue until we're blue in the face about whether or not playing with superstar talent like Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh tarnishes LeBron's legacy or not.  But the fact of the matter is that every superhero has their sidekick.  Batman had Robin, Mario had Luigi and Jordan had Pippen.

LeBron's sidekick of choice is Dwyane Wade, and it just so happens that he's a bonafide superhero himself. 

Cleveland May Never Move On from LeBron, and I'm Not Sure LeBron's Moved On Either

Last year, when LeBron and the Heatles traveled back to Cleveland for his first homecoming game against his former team, it was evident that the Cavaliers and their fans still cared about him.  The fans filled the Quicken Loans Arena with hateful signs, disrespectful t-shirts and obnoxious boos for LeBron, and while it was all warranted, it proved that the Cavaliers still missed the Chosen One.

More importantly than Cleveland fans still missing LeBron is the fact that he still misses them.  The King even tweeted back in Oct. of this year, a few months after the anniversary of his decision to leave Cleveland, that the one thing people didn't know about him was just how much he missed his fans back in Cleveland.  

While I'm shocked that LeBron still thinks he has fans back in Cleveland, it doesn't change the fact that he's still got a soft spot in his heart for them.  He even apologized to them back in May for the way that he handled his exit from Cleveland.  In a recent interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols this past Dec., LeBron mentioned that if he could go back and change how things happened, he would.

When you piece all of that together, it's evident that LeBron hasn't truly moved on from his past and his hometown of Cleveland.  It's like a bad breakup, one that he's responsible for, and the guilt that he still feels about it is leading him to try and "make things right" with the brokenhearted Cavaliers and their often times angry fans.

The fact of the matter is that LeBron James needs to just move on.  He needs to let go of what happened in Cleveland and realize that he's done everything in his power to make things right, and just start living his post-Cavaliers life.

The longer LeBron holds on to Cleveland and the hope he has of rebuilding his relationship with the city, the longer he will have to wait for his first NBA ring.

Even 591 days after leaving Cleveland, the King still cares about them, and that's something that has to change.

LeBron, Even with Better Teammates Still Hasn't Been Able to Shed Choker Label

Whenever LeBron James' name pops up, no matter where it's at, one of the first words you'll hear out of someone's mouth is, "choker."  While that moniker might be a little harsh, there's no debating the fact that throughout his career, including his most recent years in South Beach, he's been a different player in the fourth quarter of games, especially ones that hold some level of importance.

There are so many examples of LeBron's vanishing act that you could use here, like his non-existence in the final games of the Cavaliers' 2009 playoff series against the Celtics, or the fact that LeBron scored only 11 points in all the fourth quarters combined in the 2011 NBA Finals.

No one, aside from LeBron, will ever truly understand what happens or goes through the mind of the Chosen One once he steps on the court in the fourth quarter.

LeBron left a lot behind in Cleveland including his beloved image, his sense of dignity and even his legacy, but the one thing he forgot to leave in Cleveland, that he should have, is his inability to take over games in the fourth quarter.

Fortunately for LeBron, he's got guys like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and even rookie point guard Norris Cole, who he can confidently defer to late in games, which is something that he never had in his seven years with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It's clear that LeBron might never develop into the fourth quarter closer that guys like Kobe, D.Wade and D.Rose are, but that doesn't mean they're better players.  LeBron doesn't necessarily  need to score his team's final 12 points in close games, or sink game winner after game winner to be remembered as one of the greatest of all time, but he absolutely must start incorporating himself in games when his team needs him.

LeBron's an elite player, but one thing we've learned is no matter where he's taking his talents, they don't include late-game heroics, at least at this point in his career.

LeBron Undoubtedly Made the Right Decision by Taking His Talents to South Beach

July 8, 2010 is a date that will live on forever in the hearts and minds of NBA fans all over the world.  It's the day that LeBron James single-handedly took down the city of Cleveland by taking his talents to South Beach to play the rest of his NBA career, hopefully with his buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

That decision broke the hearts of Cleveland Cavaliers' fans worldwide, and while it wasn't handled as it should have been by LeBron, he undoubtedly made the right decision by deciding to play for an NBA franchise that was willing to do what they needed to do to help him win.

In all honesty, the Cavaliers' front office had every chance in the world to entice LeBron to stay in Cleveland, but they failed miserably by never bringing in the necessary talent to supplement the team-first mentality that LeBron brings to the game.

Cleveland expected LeBron James to be the Michael Jordan of their franchise, but they weren't willing to give LeBron his own Scottie Pippen, which is exactly what the Miami Heat were able to offer LeBron.

LeBron gave the Cleveland Cavaliers seven years to build a team around him, and they didn't, so he had no reason to believe that the Cavaliers front office would ever pull through on their promise to help him bring championships back to the city of Cleveland.

On Friday, when LeBron returns to Cleveland, it will be exactly 591 days since he decided to leave his hometown behind and that was undoubtedly the right decision to make.  The right decision isn't always the easiest though, and LeBron learned that the hard way.

Taking his talents to South Beach was absolutely the decision that LeBron needed to make for his career, as it put him in a clear and solidified position to excel and succeed year in and year out, which is something he didn't have with the Cavaliers.

As LeBron prepares to battle his former team this Friday night, in a hostile environment, he can at least find strength in the fact that he made the right decision, and that he's a better person on and off the court because of it.