James has blossomed since 2007 finals loss to Spurs

MIAMI – Before reaching the top of basketball, LeBron James was run over by the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs swept James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals, so long ago that the winning game plan focused on exploiting James’ weaknesses. Those are nearly impossible to find now, and James essentially warned the Spurs that they shouldn’t bother looking.

The Spurs already know.

“He’ll be a lot more of a problem than he was in ’07, that’s for sure,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Wednesday.

Tim Duncan told the beaten James minutes after that series that the league would someday belong to him, and he was right. The NBA’s MVP guided Miami to last year’s championship and the league’s best record this season.

Now the Spurs will try to take it back.

But James, now the best player in the game, is surrounded by more talent in Miami than he had in Cleveland. He still carries the memory of the beating the Spurs laid on him six years ago.

“I have something in me that they took in ’07. Beat us on our home floor, celebrated on our home floor. I won’t forget that. You shouldn’t as a competitor. You should never forget that,” James said.

He joined the Heat in 2010, experienced more finals failure a year later, then was finals MVP last year when Miami beat Oklahoma City in five games.

Another title would put him halfway to the four that Duncan and Popovich have won together.

“That’s what I’m here for,” James said. “I’m here to win championships, and you’re not always going to be on the successful side. I’ve seen it twice, not being on the successful side.”

He was just 22 at the end of his fourth year in the league when he carried to the Cavs to their first finals appearance. But there were holes in his game, from an unreliable jump shot to an undeveloped post game, and the Spurs took advantage of every one of them.

James shot 36 percent in the series, including 10 for 30 in Game 4, and had 23 turnovers.

“Well, LeBron is a different player than he was in ’07,” Popovich said. “That was like ancient history. He was basically a neophyte at the time, wondering how all this stuff worked and how it’s put together. We were very fortunate at that time to get him so early. But at this point he’s grown.”

James wasn’t interested in discussing much of that series, but he recalled the way the Spurs’ strategy kept him from getting into the paint and dared him to shoot jumpers.