LeBron James, Miami Heat: The Truth Behind the 4th Quarter Struggles

For every great NBA player, the game is a stage. Some nights it's a free show with donations going to charity (mainly versus the Bobcats), and other nights it's a made-for-DVD spectacle complete with smoke, lasers and synchronized lights. Every game is a chance to perform, a chance to leave your audience stunned, grateful and begging for more. LeBron James needs to understand this.

LeBron is not a selfish player, it's against every grain of basketball knowledge in his body. But he needs to understand that the "right" play is only the right play the first 46 minutes. Great performers know the difference between the moments you let the crowd sing back to you and the moments you give them their money's worth. The closing minutes of the show, we need an encore.

These moments are best used as an opportunity to expand an audience, command attention and force us to stalk local "Coming Soon" dates. It's also how you permanently etch yourself into the memories of your spectators. "Jordan/Ehlo" is all you need to visualize every frame of that iconic shot. From the inbound pass to the multiple fist pumps, you just saw it again. LeBron needs that moment.

Opening acts open, main events close. LeBron consistently defers in the final minutes while allowing the opening acts to finish the show. This incites theories that he's soft when the game is on the line; and when the audience is looking for a grand finale, he's cowering behind the curtain. I don't believe that's true, but it's becoming hard to fight visual evidence with belief.

LeBron is a special talent. There is no "closer gene" or "fourth quarter jinx" that Space Jam Nerdluck's his skills away from him at the end of the third. However, what's also absent is a dutiful confidence that comes from understanding that win or lose, shot or drive and dish, he needs to be the one to finish. His skills radiate throughout his entire team. The Heat know they are where they are solely because he is who he is. In the closing moments, it's up to LeBron to remind everyone of this fact.

James' ability to score at will, read a defense like Peyton Manning and rack up assists has served as his gift and his curse. It's why we consistently refer to him as the best all-around basketball player on the planet. But it's also why it becomes incredibly frustrating to watch him make a decoy of himself while guys like Mario Chalmers are shoved into the single spotlight reserved just for LeBron.

This (along with a more consistent post game) is the last piece of LeBron James' maturation process. Becoming aware of these moments and developing the fearlessness to face them is what's keeping an NBA crown out of King James' reach. Each time he fails to rise to the occasion of a clutch performance, I get the same feeling I had when the Soprano's series ended.

There's a number of young star players ready to embrace that moment. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose have all shown a propensity for embracing these encore moments. It's on LeBron James to figure this out and become the NBA's main event. With all of the young talent eager to bypass him, one thing is certain: the show will go on.