FIFTY FEET FROM LeBron James, chaos reigns. In a downtown Miami park, photographers from two different organizations are debating how much time they'll get to take his picture, while the production crew waiting to shoot his next Sprite commercial is hovering all around. Dozens of local kids are buzzing on a playground, frantic at the idea that he might cast them a glance. A 6'10" LeBron look-alike -- complete with matching beard -- is having LBJ's tattoos drawn onto his arms so the real LeBron doesn't have to wait around for the folks shooting the commercial to get the lighting just right. Between games of Xbox in their tricked-out trailer, his high-motor sons, 6-year-old Bryce and 9-year-old LeBron Jr., are darting out the door to ride dirt bikes under the watchful gaze of their grandmother.

The King, meanwhile, is oblivious to it all -- lounging in the trailer, legs outstretched, signature high-tops off, in a black sleeveless T-shirt that reads: NO HEART, NO CHANCE. He's eating a turkey sandwich prepared by his personal chef. He leans back, smiles widely, recently returned from a week of sailing on a yacht through the south of France with 10 family members and friends. He's a week from his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, Savannah Brinson, the mother of his boys. Life couldn't be better. He's won the last two NBA rings, the last two Finals MVPs, four of the last five season MVPs, the last two Olympic golds. In the story of his life, LeBron is quite possibly inhabiting the best part of the best paragraph in the very best chapter. He is the cursor, blinking in the space just to the right of the sentence that reads: He did it again -- and just to the left of the one that will soon read: Now do it again.

Is it good to be The King? Consider, instead, if it's even remotely possible that it's ever been better.

"Without MJ, there's no me," James says. "He gave me hope. He gave me inspiration." Chris McPherson for ESPN

CHRIS BROUSSARD: Did you take any time off this summer?

LEBRON JAMES: I took one month off. We ended on June 20, and I started working out on July 20. I didn't do anything. It was hard. The challenge for me is that my mind wants to always be in the gym. But I understand that I have to give my body rest from all the pounding and everything I've been through the last two and a half years. So it's a fine line, man. But it's hard for me to sit down. It's hard for me to sit down when I know I could be doing something -- working on my game in the gym or going to the Wellness Center by my house back home [in Akron, Ohio] or just doing some conditioning, doing a Pilates session or whatever. I'm just always trying to keep the edge, man.

Your agent, Rich Paul, told me he thinks you're 85 percent of the player you can be. What percentage would you put on it?

I don't know the percentage, but I know I still have room for improvement. I feel I can improve on my shooting, on my ballhandling, on my low-post game. Since I started playing ball, I've only been in the low post for two years now, playing with my back to the basket. So that still needs a lot of improvement to catch up with the rest of my game. If it's something I feel like I don't do very well, I just try to come back and do it better.

Will you play more in the post this year?

Yeah. Absolutely. I think it's a dynamic that helps our team more than anything. We don't have too many conventional post-up guys. Obviously, CB [Chris Bosh] can get down there, but he's more of a spot-up, catch-and-shoot, pick-and-flair guy. D-Wade does a little bit down there as well. But it brought a new dynamic for our team when I started to change the pie chart of my game -- less perimeter and now adding a little bit more in the post.

You used to not like playing in the post.

It wasn't that I didn't like it; it was just something I wasn't comfortable with. I would say I'm comfortable with it now. And for me, anything that adds value to our team and the guys around me, my teammates, I'm all for it. If it took me playing without the ball and cutting more or slashing more without the ball, if it took me playing point guard, if it took me playing center, if it's going to help our team, I'm for it. And I felt like in order for our team to be more dynamic, I needed to be in the low post. It just creates so many matchup problems. Teams can't play me one-on-one down there, so when a double-team comes, with me being as tall as I am and with my basketball IQ, I'm able to find guys uncovered. So it's a dynamic for our team that not many teams have.

Did you add any post moves to your game this summer?

I worked on a lot of post moves without dribbling, creating space and also getting to one countermove. If you take away one thing, being able to counter off of it, I also have a counter to a counter. If you take away the counter, I'm able to exploit that as well. So it's going to be pretty fun down there for me this year.

You said earlier that if there's something you don't do very well, you try to work on it. What don't you do very well?

I don't want to give that up [laughs heartily]. I don't know. What's the scouting report on me? Force me left? I think that's what it is -- force me left or make me shoot.

The Spurs dared you to shoot.

The Spurs dared me to shoot, and it worked for the first few games, and it became a mental challenge for me. I started rethinking. I was thinking too much. But once I got past that, I just started thinking to myself, Man, you've worked on your shot too much to now go back in reverse. Just go out and do it. Just go out and shoot the same shots you shoot in practice, the same shots you shoot in workouts, and just believe in them.

So you were having doubts about your J?

Yeah, yeah, it was more mental than anything, the first couple games. Game 1 was okay. Game 2, I struggled. Game 3, I struggled from the perimeter. It wasn't even my jump shot. It was more of how they were playing me, and I was trying to drive into the teeth of their defense when they were playing off me instead of just shooting the jump shot -- taking what was there. I went into the film room after Game 3, and I was like, Man, just go out and play. Do what you do best and just feed off the game and let it do what it do.

People would say, How does the best player in the world have doubts?

Well, when you do something at a high level for so long and when it doesn't happen, you start to … it's not even questioning yourself. You just have doubts, like, Am I making the right play? Should I take this shot, or should I drive? I think we all have doubts.

Your first high school coach, Keith Dambrot, said you're an intellectual genius on the court.

[Laughs long and hard] Well, he's not going to say anything bad about me. He was the first person who told me I could be special, really special. He was the first person who told me I could be the greatest basketball player ever if I wanted it. He told me that when I was a sophomore in high school. I just looked at him crazy. Then he started coming to practice and saying, "If you put your mind to it and you focus in, you could be the greatest ever." I didn't believe it, though.

Do you believe it now?

Well, that's my goal. That's what continues to motivate me -- winning championships and being the greatest of all time. That's my goal.