One longtime NBA official, watching the venom spill out of LeBron’s (James) mouth that night, shook his head and said what many in the room thought: “He’ll never get it.”

Now, maybe LeBron does get it. Exactly one year has passed from the end of last season’s failure to the start of these Finals, and the 12 months in between have been a journey of introspection. He’s a different player, a different person. His focus is sharper. His priorities have changed.

“I played too much to prove people wrong last year,” James said.

This, more than any other reason, is why James can finally deliver his first championship. He’s changed and so can his Heat. The Oklahoma City Thunder are younger, faster, deeper, more athletic. They’ve fallen in line behind Kevin Durant and they have home-court advantage. But if James plays with the fury he brought to the Eastern Conference finals? Anything is possible.

via Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports