I'll be jiggered. The extra motivation James said he had last year but wouldn't identify, it was Stephen Curry winning MVP. James didn't like that. He wanted to prove THEM wrong; that's why he was super-human in the Finals. I don't get the sense that it was selfish competitiveness, however. Maybe I don't have the sense to have that sense, like I didn't with Friedman. What else could it be...He did seem "consumed" last year, neither I, a mere moron, nor anybody else, had ever seen anything like that...And he did make that odd-selfish-remark at the press conference after Game Five, "I'm the best player in the world." Lee Jenkins, the author of this piece, PAUSE: Sports Illustrated was once so renowned for its writing that some articles were assigned reading in an English writing class I took in college! Where have you gone, SI? This article by Jenkins is in that tradition. It is very good. UNPAUSE, says James plays best when he plays enraged. The "Warriors," Curry's team, plays with "joy," Jenkins says. Jenkins does not say this, this is my reading between his lines: That...I can't think of the right word, not "enrages," the "Warriors" joy doesn't enrage James; "bothers," no; "haunts" James is too strong, but "haunts" is as close as I can come up with to what I feel Jenkins is writing between his lines, there is some psychic bother the "Warriors" joy is causing James. Maybe that it came so easily to them? They won it in their first attempt? James did not! James didn't win it in his first attempt in Cleveland, didn't win it in his first attempt in Miami, didn't win it in his first attempt back in Cleveland. And that fucking sissy bitch Curry and his San Francisco poof teammates win it in their first try. AND only because James' team was playing the water boys with two of their Big Three out injured. The city of Cleveland never had it easy! Hell, no! They haven't won a championship since Grant was president. And fucking San Francisco with Steph Curry and "joy" wins it their first try?! That would bother a guy. That you can win with JOY and not rage goes against everything James thought he had learned in his basketball life-in Cleveland, and in Miami, from the "great," James' word, Pat Riley.

Huh. I'll be jiggered.