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As the clock wound down Thursday night, with the outcome clear, LeBron James let everything out. All the grief he took for leaving Cleveland. All the hate he received for going to Miami. All the criticism he endured for failing in the NBA Finals last year.
The only “crimes” were his over-the-top TV special two years ago and his reckless prediction that the Heat would win eight titles. Yet that was enough to make him Public Enemy No. 1, despised and resented like no one else in the NBA. Overnight, he went from being the league’s most popular player to its most polarizing, and it made him an angrier, less joyous player.
But all of that disappeared in the final moments of Miami’s series-clinching victory.