Eleven months later here he is.

He didn’t want to be the reason for winning; he just wanted to win.

He asked for this: the big stage, the brightest spotlight, the most pressure.

At some point in his life LeBron James tattooed “Chosen One” across his body, so it’s not as if a night like this, a moment like this and the demands of a game like this should come as a surprise.

This is what he has supposedly built his life toward.

Great moments are born from great opportunities.

This moment – a moment LeBron has striven for, obsessed over his entire life – is no longer about promise or potential. It surely isn’t a matter of being clutch or not. This is about not being present, present during the time to stand and deliver.

Deliver after enduring the gruel, the grind and the burden that was these last 11 months.

“You’re at a point where you’re just not in a good rhythm,” James said. “You start aiming shots. You start thinking about plays too much. You start thinking about the game too much and instead of going out and reading and react and playing the game. …

“When you’re out of rhythm, it’s tough to get back into the flow in that particular game. I guess the best thing about it is you try to watch that film, see the things you can do better the next game and then go after it.”

Thinking too much? Not playing the game? Out of rhythm? Do better next game? Are you serious?

There are no more excuses, LeBron. This is it. This is what you asked for, what you left everything behind for. If you wanted to be the star with the built-in excuse, you should’ve stayed in Cleveland.

Speaking of which, ESPN columnist Brian Windhorst – a former Cavalier beat-writer for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and life long friend of LeBron – described his game 4 performance as, “So out of character and so off base that it still feels like, despite Wade making two huge mistakes down the stretch that Miami lost because of LeBron.”

This isn’t about weak links in Miami. There is no Larry Hughes or Mo Williams, no Damon Jones or Eric Snow to shoulder the blame. If anything, James has been the weak link.

The disengagement LeBron displayed Tuesday night was so eerily and frighteningly similar to last years infamous game five performance – or lack thereof – against Boston, except this time, with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh on his team.

How can a man so aware, so self-conscious be so oblivious to a moment so grand, so important?

The Miami Heat were constructed to survive a slump from James here, an off night from Wade there or an occasional Chris Bosh disappearance.

But a question of heart, desire and passion? You’re kidding, right?

It’s perplexing how a career 27.7 point a game scorer can go the final 13-plus minutes of an NBA Finals game without a basket, without a free throw?

How can a defender as capable, as dominant as LeBron shut down the MVP for an entire series and fail to guard Jason Terry?

This is far beneath LeBron. His talent is too great, his stature too illustrious for these ghost-like performances to still be occurring.

It’s mind-numbing to watch a player – with an infallible level of talent, unmatched by anybody on the court, maybe the world – continue to wilt when he should be blossoming.

What next game LeBron? There are only three games left to play, if you play.

Unlike last year, it’s preposterous to think there is actually something wrong with LeBron.

Nobody – coach or teammate – has ever berated LeBron James as Dwayne Wade did in the fourth quarter of game 3.

The stakes are too high, the opportunity too grand and the consequences of failure too grave.

Maybe the brilliance of Wade has caused him to question his own greatness? And maybe he just had a bad night.

After all, it’s indisputable that James is a drama-queen. He loves the attention, the limelight that his greatness commands.

As much as he has sacrificed to be in this position – and sacrifice a great deal he has – he would never, will never, relinquish his celebrity stature.

You will never see LeBron naturally hop up after taking a hard foul to the floor – instead, he will milk it until every fan in the arena is standing in an awkward why-do-we-care-so-much silence.

You will never see him go handshake-less in a pregame introduction. And you will never see him run straight back instead of straight to the ref after a call against him.

He is the chosen one, and is choosing his moment.

Just as he chose to go through with “The Decision,” just as he chose South Beach, and just as he is now choosing to cash in his great opportunity for his great moment.

Will LeBron explode in game 5 for 40-plus points? A triple-double? Or maybe just an all-around breathtaking performance?

Would you be surprised if he did?

No.

Would you be fascinated if he didn’t?

Surely.

Life is strange, and sports are stranger. Both are uncertain in nature.

But for certain, both will deliver a few moments when something remarkable is about to happen, when you know it’s remarkable, when you’ve done everything you could to prepare for the moment, but still, you just don’t know what to expect.

And it would be foolish to pretend otherwise.

These NBA Finals are LeBron’s moment – a culmination of the year of LeBron.

He’s not pretending, he just doesn’t know either.