To understand part of the problem with the James Media/PR Empire-Complex, check out the following short email entitled, "The Dallas Mavericks Will Win the 2011 NBA Championship ... Here’s the Two Reasons Why: Mostly LeBron" by Aaron Weintraub (leave it to a baseball coach to figure this stuff out).
There is also some great insight for you players (and non-players) as to the importance of self-awareness and continual, honest evaluation of how you are doing. That's honest evaluation ... the type that is often uncomfortable. Most of us want to hear how wonderful and lovely all we say and do are. However, the real work (and progress) in life begins when we are honest with ourselves and learn to embrace people in our lives going the same direction as we are that will spur us along on this journey.
Learn how to do this, and then you will find God's full potential in your games and lives.
Here is Coach Weintraub:
"First, the Mavs are playing very well, starting with Nowitzki. Dirk is much more mentally tough than he was in 2006. Back then, he pouted after every close call that went against him. Now he focuses on his job and does a great job of reading what is available to him. His teammates understand their roles, too, and they do a good job of getting themselves ready to give their best effort through the high stress and challenges of playing a more talented Heat team in the NBA Finals.
"Second, LeBron doesn’t know how to get himself ready to give his best effort. There are three steps that separate a best effort performance from a lousy performance, assuming that the athlete is trying hard in both. One is to create an ideal state, or get yourself ready both physically and mentally. Two is to know your job in controllable terms, and three is to focus and simply let it happen. It is the first step where LeBron and many others fall short. You see, without awareness, no adjustment is possible. Most athletes don’t know what leads them to play great, other than trying hard. Often, their coaches sense it better than they do and these fine coaches learn to put their players in the positions where they excel. Or, the athletes just play great when they’re comfortable, or juiced, or patient, or whatever it is. Perhaps night games at home lead to an ideal performance state, and that’s good enough for them to have what they consider to be success.
'Here’s what I see with LeBron. He’s in his ideal state when he believes that his team needs him to be their clear leader. When he takes the challenge of defeating his opponents personally and strives to carry his team on his shoulders, he gets explosive. Here’s the problem. He doesn’t know this. Without awareness, no adjustment is possible. He obviously needs to adjust, but his postgame comments after Game 5 make it clear that he doesn’t even know this. “My offense in the fourth quarter is fine.” Huh? No, it’s not.
"When you’re LeBron, having a feeling that your team needs you to carry them happens often, without any awareness necessary from yourself. Cleveland had nothing else. When Wade gets hurt and misses a few minutes (like in Game 5), you play better. But when Wade is on the court, LeBron strives to be the best “team player” he can be. There’s nothing wrong with that in concept – it just doesn’t lead to him performing the way he’s capable of performing. He’s trying to be a good guy, not the selfish guy he obviously is. ... He would play better if he would get selfish and carry his team, as we all know he can.
"Fortunately for the Mavericks, no one is likely to tell LeBron what he needs to know fast enough for this year. After he fails, he’ll look for answers and probably make great adjustments, but his personal values and judgments will not change over the next few days. Even without LeBron at his best, the Heat are very good, but to beat the Mavericks twice, they would need him in an ideal performance state a majority of the time.
"That’s not going to happen."
-Aaron Weintraub
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