“I do envision championship basketball and when you talk about championship basketball, you talk about a good defensive team, you talk about a good offensive team and you talk about a team that really has its act together once they step on the floor. Our goal is to dominate the east and we must continue to dominate the east so that we can have another return to the NBA Finals. And I think mentally we have to become a tougher basketball team. I think mental toughness is going to be the thing that makes us champions.” – Isiah Thomas

Over the years James LeBron, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh have all taken positive steps in strengthening their basketball mental toughness, team cohesiveness and the mental game of the team.

With seven NBA Championships, two NBA Scoring Champions and nine NBA All Defensive selections between them, the Big 3 were the brains, brawn and heart of the Miami Heat team that made it to four finals and won two Championships over the last four seasons.

With James LeBron already heading back to Cleveland to “finish his career” and Chris Bosh deciding to stay on at Miami, that only leaves Dwayne Wade’s destiny to be decided upon.

It has been no secret that LeBron’s every word; play; success and failure have been put under the microscope, dissected, and analysed. Even without the media’s and the public’s scrutiny, LeBron has had to deal with the pressures and obstacles on the court throughout his impressive career.

There are only a handful of athletes that have ever been scrutinized as much. To be able to put up the sort of consistent numbers and performances with everything else buzzing on around him is a testament to the amount of mental toughness he possesses.

Dwayne has also demonstrated his ability to cope with the media’s love and hate relationship as well as having to deal with and overcome injury during his eleven seasons with the Heat.

Udonis Haslem, the only other player to have been alongside Wade at Miami for all eleven seasons, once said of Wade, “He’s one of, if not the most, mentally tough people I know.”

Averaging 16.2 points and 52 percent shooting last season, Bosh will now be able to step out from LeBron’s shadow and will potentially have the opportunity to step up and take more shots. Bosh demonstrated his own mental strength and basketball psychology awareness, which are two of the fundamentals that are taught in sports psychology for basketball. When he spoke during this year’s finals “I’m a little calm now.” Bosh said. “The butterflies are a little more of a pre-game thing”. This is clearly an awareness of a seasonal player that has taken control of his mental game.

When facing tough situations on and off the court it’s the mistakes made and the athlete’s ability to take the lessons from those mistakes that will make or break their mental game.

Basketball athletes are no exception to the rule.

Lebron James, Dewade Wade and Chris Bosh is what true mental toughness looks like.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in basketball.