NBA Finals 2012: LeBron James Is in Perfect Mindset to Capture Elusive Title
LeBron James is mentally locked in and his demeanor proves he understands the effort, and focus necessary to lead his team to a championship. There have been no moments lacking aggression and no instances that made you wonder whose team this is.
It's not to say his play has been perfect, but he has been in attack mode through two games.
This is a team game, and a championship would be a team accomplishment. But we would all be lying to ourselves if we said this series is not about LeBron James. No player in this series will be as affected by the outcome.
James must win this series, and in that I mean he must be the catalyst.
He will obviously need great play from Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. They will need the role players like Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier and Udonis Haslem to play well. But in the end James' time on the podium after the deciding game is what everyone will want to see.
You can see it in his eyes that he knows what's at stake. Imagine the level of pressure he must be under every time he touches the ball.
One could argue that the pressure is self-inflicted, but that doesn't make the weight any lighter.
That is what makes the performances in Game 1 and 2 so impressive. As the fourth quarter has approached and progressed, LeBron has made it his business to assert himself. He knows what time it is, he knows the haters are tweeting, blogging, comically prophesying and wishing for his downfall.
Because of this, LeBron has had his game face surgically implanted.
The Thunder are an amazingly talented team, but no matter how much Kevin Durant wants this title, it'll never mean as much to him as this one would mean to James.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN quoted LeBron in an interview prior to the start of this series: "Whatever the results, I'm going to be satisfied with that. I'm going to be happy with it because I know I'm going to give it my all."
While I'm sure he'll be far from happy if the Heat lose, I believe he'll sleep much better this summer than he did last summer. James has but three more wins to capture to validate his unparalleled physical gifts.
This time his mental is just as impressive as the physical, he can put his mind and the legitimate doubts to rest.
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