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 shouldnt bother looking. The Spurs already know. "Hell be a lot more of a problem than he was in 07, thats 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 NBAs MVP guided Miami to last years championship and the leagues best record this season. Now the Spurs will try to take it back. But James is now the best player in the game, is surrounded by more talent in Miami than he ever had in Cleveland, and 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 wont forget that. You shouldnt 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 now would put him halfway to the four that Duncan and Popovich have won together. "Thats what Im here for," James said. "Im here to win championships, and youre not always going to be on the successful side. Ive 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 per cent in the series, including a ghastly 10 for 30 in Game 4, and committed 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 its put together. We were very fortunate at that time to get him so early. But at this point hes grown." James wasnt 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. Theres no blueprint now that would encourage a guy who made 56.5 per cent of his shots this season to shoot the ball. "If you go under my pick-and-roll now, Im going to shoot. And Im confident Im going to make every last one of them," James said. "Im just more confident in my ability to shoot the ball. "But at the same time, I also have a lot more weapons this time around going against this team, where in 07 they loaded three guys to me a lot on the strong side of the floor. So like I said, Im a better player, and you cant dare me to do anything I dont want to do in 2013." Duncan and James probably wouldnt have thought it would take so long to see each other in the finals again after their meeting in the hallway of Clevelands Quicken Loans Arena. San Antonio had built a quiet dynasty, winning four titles in nine years, and the core of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili would keep giving the Spurs chances. But they couldnt get out of the West even while finishing with the best record in the conference the last two years, just as Cleveland couldnt in the East during James last two seasons there. "I hoped to be back here. Whether he would he here or not, I couldnt predict that," the 37-year-old Duncan said. "Knowing the player that he was then and the trajectory he was on, I had no doubt he would be back here. I had no doubt he would be tops in this league at some point. And Im glad and honoured to be back here playing against him." The Spurs have been off since finishing a sweep of Memphis on May 27. The Heat were forced to overcome a rugged Indiana team and the struggles of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in a seven-game series that wrapped up Monday. That set up a finals between teams built in decidedly different ways but with mutual respect. While others around the league seethed, Popovich even called Pat Riley to offer congratulations after the Heat architect signed James and Bosh in 2010. It gives James a chance to pay the Spurs back for their 2007 romp, when they forced the Cavaliers into the worst offensive performance in finals history. "I believe that after that finals he probably always obviously wanted to get back again. But I think he probably always wanted to get back and play them," Wade said. "So obviously having this opportunity right now is probably something he always dreamed of, of getting back to the finals and playing the Spurs again." The Spurs Big Three didnt have to endure the same wait to win. Duncan won a title in just his second season, and Parker was only 21 when he earned his first. Yet eventually they stalled, so theyre as eager for this opportunity as James. "When I was 21 and I won my first one, it was kind of fast and we think its going to happen every year. We think its easy. But after a lot of years in the league, you realize its really hard to go to the finals," Parker said. "Now we take nothing for granted. We appreciate every moment, and well see what happens." Keith Magnuson Jersey . The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Jones (19-1). It was the champions closest call. Despite the loss, it was a remarkable show by the confident Swedish challenger, who had the best of the early rounds and then hung on in the fourth and fifth. Clark Griswold Jersey . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. 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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Though he wasnt in a New England Patriots uniform, Tom Brady found a way to throw some touchdown passes this weekend.Brady and Michigan?coach Jim Harbaugh played catch together Saturday afternoon as the fourth-ranked Wolverines warmed up around the two former Wolverines quarterbacks. Brady was visiting his alma mater this weekend as Michigans honorary captain for its afternoon matchup with Colorado.Brady arrived in Ann Arbor on Friday night to speak to the team, but before he met the Wolverines at the hotel, he and his son made a stop at Michigan Stadium to throw a few passes.The QB returned to the stadium around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon and headed into the Michigan locker room shortly after the team arrived. Harbaugh and Brady lined up about 25 yards from each other and had a spirited game of catch. Harbaugh, true to form, wore cleats and a pair of receiver gloves.After the Wolverines 45-28 victory, Harbaugh called the exchange a thrill.When I look back on my career of playing catch with different people, that was right there with my dad, playing catch with my dad, he said. His pregame talk was outstanding. It was very good, very from the heart. He went through each position and he told them what they were expected to play like ... the guys who wore those uniforms and played that position before.Harbaugh noted that he inittiated the catch.ddddddddddddOf course, he said. Lets play a little catch, Tom. He throws a good ball. That ball almost catches itself the way he throws it.Brady hasnt been back to a game at Michigan since he played his final game in a maize and blue uniform in 1999. His four-week suspension stemming from the Deflategate punishment opened up his calendar this September, and Harbaugh invited him to spend some of that time with the Michigan team.At least a handful of fans traded in their Michigan colors for Patriots jerseys to welcome one of the schools most successful NFL exports of all time.As part of his duties as honorary captain, Brady gave the team a pregame speech Friday night in its hotel and participated in the coin toss minutes before kickoff. Before Brady joined the teams three captains at midfield, Michigan played a video montage of his highlights while he was a Wolverine.Brady was joined during the coin toss by billionaire video game developer Bobby Kotick and Bill McCartney, a Michigan native and former Wolverine assistant who won a national championship as head coach at Colorado.Brady couldnt bring his Wolverines any luck prior to kickoff, though. The Buffaloes won the coin toss before losing the game.? ' ' '