King is crowned: James, Heat win NBA title

MIAMI ? Relief spread across LeBron James' face, instantaneously, it seemed, as the first NBA championship of the Miami Heat's Big 3 era went into the books Thursday .

After his team's 121-106 win closed out the Oklahoma City Thunder, James hopped up and down, shared a long hug with his worthy opponent, Kevin Durant, and continued to smile as he watched the confetti flow from the rafters.

"It's about damn time. It's about damn time," James said.

In the locker room not long after, no one was separating James from the Larry O'Brien championship trophy.

For eight seasons, recognized as one of the best if not the best athlete in the NBA, James had come up short winning a championship ? even when he teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and the Heat last season.

But James would not be denied in his ninth year. MVP in the regular season. MVP in the NBA Finals, the 14th time that double-double was posted since the NBA began giving out the postseason award in 1969. And delivered to him by league legend Bill Russell.

"This is the happiest day of my life," James told the Miami fans who stayed in at AmericanAirlines Arena, celebrating the Heat franchise's second NBA championship, but their new hero's first.

"I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else but my teammates, these fans," he said.

James, saying this title meant "everything" to him, saved his first triple-double of the season for the title-clinching game: 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds.

And he called the postseason run "a dream come true for me."

Looking back on the journey from a year ago, when the Heat lost in the Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, and James was heavily criticized for not showing up, he said: "It helped me a lot, and I was able to go back to the basics. At the end of the day I looked at myself in the mirror and said, 'You've got to be better.'"

What hurt him the most, he was asked?

Being called selfish, he said.

"That was the only thing that bothered me," James said. "A lot of people thought I was a selfish person. I strive to be a team player. ? At the same time, I used that as motivation.

"I just went back to the basics. I knew what got me to this point ? that was hard work and dedication. ? Last year I tried to prove something to everybody. I played with a lot of hate. And that's not what I play with. I play with a lot of love and passion."

Five other Heat scored in double figures, including beleaguered forward Mike Miller, who hit seven three-pointers and had 23 points. Bosh added 24 and Wade 20.

For the postseason, James averaged 30.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists. For the Finals, 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists.

Wade, who led the Heat to their 2006 title, recognized he had to cede control of the team this year to James for the Big 3 concept to work.

"We made a decision two years to become a team, you know, LeBron, Chris and myself. So you got to do what you got to do to make sure you reach your goal," Wade said.

Forward Mike Miller, the Heat's long-range shooter who has been so banged up he had not even hit one three-pointer in the Finals, hit not one, not two, but seven three-pointers, missing only once.

Miller, 32, might have played his last game in the NBA, so you know he enjoyed the post-game locker room celebration.

So what was said in there?

"I think everyone, to be honest with you, it was just a weight off our shoulders," Miller said. "Right or wrong, people expected us to win it right away. We put some of those expectations on ourselves."

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