CLEVELAND, June 14, 2007 -- It happened to great players like Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Shaquille O'Neal, Isiah Thomas, Gary Payton, Julius Erving and Elvin Hayes.

Their first trip to The Finals ended in loss, their lust for Larry O'Brien left unfulfilled.

But, as the saying goes, "If at first you don't succeed in the NBA Finals, try, try again."

Heck, Jerry West didn't just lose his first NBA Finals. His Lakers lost to the Celtics in 1962, '63, '65, '66, '68, '69, to the Knicks in '70 and finally won against New York in 1972.

For West the saying went, "If at first you don't succeed in the NBA Finals, try, try again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

LeBron James, having reached the precipice of greatness as a 22-year old in just his fourth season, will have to wait and see if he can join the aforementioned group after being swept from The Finals in four games by a Spurs team led by Tim Duncan, who never had to play the waiting game and is now four-for-four in the championship round.

Thursday was the best of times for James as he welcomed his second child, Bryce Maximus, into his kingdom and it was the worst of times as he bid farewell to his championship hopes for 2007.

Ever since he was a 17-year old on the cover of Sports Illustrated, James seemed to have to carry the weight of the basketball world on his shoulders.

The magazine cover read, "The Chosen One," and James embraced the challenge, getting those three words tattooed in 12-inch letters across his upper back, spanning from shoulder to shoulder perhaps giving his clavicles a little extra motivation to look to when they started to tire.

"You know, if I don't play well, our team is not going to have a good chance to win," James said at the postgame press conference. "You know, I've got a lot of things to work on to get better for next year."

For a player who has already won so much so easily (i.e. Rookie of the Year in 2004 and All-Star Game MVP in 2006), this Finals against this San Antonio squad was a wake-up call.

In four games LeBron shot 4-for-16, 9-for-21, 9-for-23 and 10-for-30. Add it all up and that's 32-for-90 (36 percent). It was such a rough series for the 6-8 superstar that his shooting might not even be his most damning stat.

Look at his turnovers from the four games and you'll see six, six, five and six. That's a total of 23 that No. 23 is certainly not proud about.

"We went up against a better team in this series, and everybody has to be better coming into next season," James said. "I have to be 10 times better. Our team has to be 10 times better. As individuals, if we all put in the work this summer and come to training camp next year, our level automatically rises."

If James truly does come back 10 times better, it will just be plain scary. For all of his struggles in the series, it wasn't like he had a complete let down. A lot of players would be very happy with averages of 22 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game against a team that has won 57-plus games in the regular season for the last seven years straight.

Despite the loss, there is something to gain for a player like James in an experience like he just went through.

"More than anything, I think he takes perseverance and understanding," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said of his young star. "You've just got to keep staying with it, keep staying with it no matter what the score is, no matter what the series is. And eventually, if you understand that, like you said, no excuses and let's defend, we're going to give ourselves a chance."

There was a lesson around every corner as the series unfolded, from LeBron learning how imperative it is for him to stay out of foul trouble early in Game 2, to LBJ being reminded that errant free throws can come back to haunt you as he missed four freebies in the Cavs' one-point Game 4 loss.

He also learned that perception is far different from reality as the high-flyer only had two dunks the whole series, while Duncan, the one considered to play below the rim, had five.

LeBron and the Cavs bore witness to the eighth sweep in Finals history, but in the process might have picked up or thing or two from their opponents, a team they already model themselves after as Brown used to be a Gregg Popovich assistant in San Antonio.

After Game 4, Duncan was leaving the postgame press conference while LeBron was entering and the two shared a legitimate "passing of the torch" type moment. Duncan, who averaged 18.3 points and 11.5 rebounds for the series, told James something along the lines of, "The league will be yours soon, take care of it," and James congratulated the champion.

"If I couldn't do it, why not Tim Duncan?," James stated. "He's definitely a very good player, and he definitely brings out the best in his teammates. I think I kind of want to do the same thing and try to do the same thing with my teammates, so we're kind of the same player, me in the perimeter, him in the post."

LeBron is now 0-for-1 in The Finals, but you have to believe that he'll be in Duncan's shoes before long, leaving the podium a Finals winner and offering advice to the next young great one that will have to try, try again.