LeBron James: Why the 2012 LeBron James Will Be the Best We've Ever Seen

The last two years have been an enormous letdown for LeBron James and his fans.  It hasn't been a letdown because he hasn't developed a post game or won a championship.  

The last two years have been a letdown because James has been playing to prove the world wrong instead of playing for himself and the players around him.

James is going to be a different player this year not because he spent the offseason with Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon or because he has a year under his belt with his new teammates.  He will be a different player because he won't be trying to prove people wrong. 

Instead of adding a serious post game to his offensive repertoire over the last few years, James added something I like to call the "vanishing act." 

In the 2010 NBA playoffs against the Boston Celtics, the vanishing act took center stage.  The vanishing act didn't stop there, it traveled with James the whole way from Cleveland to Miami and found its way into the 2011 NBA Finals.

That vanishing act existed to serve one purpose, to help James deal with his critics and haters.  James pretended like he didn't care what people thought about him, but he really did and that state of mind transitioned into his game on the court.  

Pretending that he didn't care about all the haters became caring more about the haters than he did about playing the game the way he knows he can.  

As a James fan, I hate to admit it, but he absolutely let his team down last year by not being the player that he knows he needs to be.  The reason he did that was because he was playing, as he said in his recent interview with ESPN, to prove people wrong.

James learned a valuable lesson this offseason.  That lesson is that you will never be able to turn haters into fans, and trying to prove doubters wrong is impossible to accomplish because they will always find something wrong with who you are and what you do.

In a recent interview with Rachel Nichols of ESPN, James talked about his new perspective on how he needs to approach the game and play the game:

"This year I won't be trying to prove anybody wrong.  You know, that's where bad habits picked up over the course of a season because my whole season was about trying to prove people wrong and that's not how I play the game of basketball."

I know these are just words, and James has made statements like this before.  There's something different about him this time around though, and I think it's the fact that he's let go of his need to prove people wrong.  Here is another quote from James' interview with ESPN: 

"The biggest teacher in life is experiences that you go through, and that's the only way you learn.  I'm going to work 10 times harder this year to get back to there [NBA Finals]. This year I won't be playing to prove anybody wrong."

James sounds like a different man.  He sounds focused and motivated, not because other people are fueling his fire, but because he is fueling it himself with a love for the game itself.  

If you want to hear this change for yourself just listen to him talk about how terrible of a decision he made by leaving Cleveland the way he did in this interview with ESPN.

The LeBron James that we will see on Christmas Day will be a different, more authentic James than we have ever seen before.  The changes that James has made that are most important are the intangible ones like admitting mistakes, letting go of hatred and embracing the game.  

While his new post game might be a nice addition to his game, what really will be the difference in 2011-12 will be the new and improved attitude he will bring to the court.

Alright James, here's your chance, show us you're ready to start walking the walk and back up what you've said you're ready to do.