It's been nine years of hype since LeBron James entered the NBA. Nine years of waiting for the "King" to become the king. Nine years of waiting to actually "witness" the things we all know he's capable of.
When the waiting finally ended, it wasn't due to chance. It was due to a fundamental change in the way LeBron played and the moment when he became more than an elite, underachieving talent. As Andrew Sharp said in his SB Nation post:
"Go back and compare the player from that Mavericks series to the one we saw this week in Miami. One's an insanely gifted, underachieving All-Star, the other is a Hall of Famer operating on a whole different plane from anyone else on the court. LeBron just took a Heat team that should have been overmatched and completely outclassed a better team, totally outplayed his closest MVP competition, and by the end, he was making it all look easy."
Not only was the change of his play visible, it was downright chartable. From CourtsideAnalytics, the difference is obvious. And so, the person that so many basketball fans love to hate became the champion everyone thought he should've been so many times before.
From Sharp:
"Root for the good guys, root for the bad guys, whatever. But we never want there to be fewer Hall of Fame superheros to tell our kids about. Watching LeBron was a gift the past few games, and as he carved up the Thunder and just kept making it look easier and easier and getting closer and closer to that ring, it became obvious that we were watching history that we'd never forget. As Henry Abbot said, that "Witness" campaign isn't a joke anymore."