LeBron James is the heavy favorite to win his third regular season MVP award, and thus far in the postseason, the Miami Heat superstar has looked fully motivated to win his first championship.
This isn't the same James we've seen previouslyâ€"that is not a new revelation.
We've seen a renewed effort from James to assert himself as the league's most dominant player, and it's very obvious that he understands the criticism will continue until he wins a championship.
In a must-read interview with Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, James shares how his life changed following the loss in the 2011 finals to the Dallas Mavericks.
"I don't need a fistful (of rings). But I need one. I need to get one first. I have short goalsâ€"to get better every day, to help my teammates every dayâ€"but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It's all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing."
There are a lot of jokes (some of which are funny, others that are not) about James not having a championship in his collection of accomplishments at this point in his career, but some people often forget where James is in his career.
As talented as he is, James is still learning. The great ones are always learning no matter what has transpired in the past.
Now James has a new team. At its core, Miami is still built around LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but James has found a chemistry with key role players that didn't exist last season.
Udonis Haslem was hurt for the majority of last year. Mike Miller missed a ton of time and simply wasn't ready to contribute in the playoffs when his team needed him. There was no Shane Battier.
Those players don't make headlines, but they're critical contributors for Miami this time around.
They allow LeBron to do different things on the basketball court.
After Miami's 104-94 Game 2 victory over New York, James was quick to heap praise on Battier (via the Miami Herald).
“Just having Shane out there is a huge part, he allows me to guard someone else. He does so many great things for us that doesn’t show up in the box scores. I love him being in a Heat uniform."
Head coach Erik Spoelstra added that he wants Battier and Miller to shoot the ball.
Each veteran has done a good job of stretching the floor and knocking shots down from behind the arc (11-of-25 this series), and that has allowed James to be able to use his elite athleticism to get to the rim at will.
It's not surprising that James has taken just four shots from deep through two gamesâ€"he simply doesn't have to do it.
Defensively, James has been a force.
Although his efforts don't always show up in the box score, LeBron has been guarding multiple positions effectively and really presenting a challenge for the Knicks.
He's even defending Tyson Chandler, and that allows Miami to utilize very unorthodox lineups that create problems for the opposition.
Most importantly, James' performance in the fourth quarter of playoff games is no longer a popular topic of conversation.
A lot can happen for LeBron and his Heat teammates, but thus far, it's looking like they're all coming together at exactly the right time.
It's a strange thought that Miami's role players could be exactly what LeBron needs to win his first championship, but it's one that's certainly worth discussing.
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