MIAMI -- LeBron James was walking down the hallway that the Miami Heat call "Championship Alley" a few minutes after last season

MIAMI -- LeBron James was walking down the hallway that the Miami Heat call "Championship Alley" a few minutes after last seasons NBA Finals, when he decided the time was right to send a message. Old Skool Outlet . It wasnt for his fans. It was for his detractors. "Keep giving me motivation! I need it!" James shouted in the crowded corridor, as the champagne for a second straight NBA title started spraying in the nearby locker room. "Keep doubting me! I need it!" James still has his haters, of course. But with the start of this years playoffs looming, the four-time NBA MVP said Friday he doesnt necessarily need to be fueled by them anymore, not with the Heat having a chance to become just the fourth franchise in league history to capture three straight titles. And if doubt exists -- to be clear, it surely does after Miami lost 14 of its last 25 games -- James said hes not noticing. "I sent out a few tweets but I havent been reading anything," James said after Miami ended practice Friday. "Im kind of just gearing toward locking in tomorrow night and go from there. But I dont need any motivation. I dont need extra motivation. Im motivated enough. This is the best part of the season, its the best time of the year and Im happy to be here once again." Miamis path toward what it hopes is a third straight title and fourth straight appearance in the NBA Finals starts on Sunday against the Charlotte Bobcats, a team the Heat swept this season and are 15-0 against since James arrived in South Florida. Still, no one needs to tell him how much more difficult this post-season could be for Miami, since history isnt exactly on his teams side. Only two franchises -- the Lakers and Celtics -- have won as many as four straight conference titles. James got a reminder of that Thursday night when he watched a documentary about the "Bad Boys"-era Detroit Pistons, a group that won back-to-back NBA championships and reached the finals three years in a row, just as the Heat have now. "When they said they went to three straight finals, they won two in a row, now theyre looking to go to a fourth straight final, I looked at my wife and said, Whos that sound like?" James said. "I know exactly what they were going through." Thing is, those Pistons couldnt get it done. Whether or not Miami does largely hinges on James. He averaged 27.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists in the regular season, shooting nearly 57 per cent -- the seventh straight year in which hes set a career best in that department. He had a career-high 61-point night against Charlotte last month, climbed five more spots to No. 27 on the leagues career scoring list, and is likely to pick up his eighth All-NBA first-team selection. And even if James doesnt wind up getting his fifth MVP award, with Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City appearing to be the favourite this year, the Bobcats know the enormity of the challenge awaiting them. "Obviously he is the best player in the world," Charlotte guard Chris Douglas-Roberts said. "Hes the best player on the planet and we know he is going to make shots that are contested and will have nights he gets 30. But I think we have a pretty good defence. The game he had 61, if he hits 8 3s on anyone that is going to happen. But we like our chances on the defensive end." Fairly or unfairly, everything the Heat and James have done to this point in the season is now irrelevant. Theyll all be judged by what they do in the next two months. James knows and accepts thats the case, as do his star teammates Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. "This is what makes elite players elite players," Wade said. "You dont get the elite name unless youve done it at this level." Over the last two postseasons, James has made the elite look ordinary. The 45-point, season-saving game at Boston in 2012. A triple-double in Game 5 of that seasons Finals against Oklahoma City to wrap up his first championship. A layup at the buzzer to beat Indiana in Game 1 last year. A 32-point game in Game 6 of last years Finals against San Antonio, followed by a 37-point outing in the second straight title-clincher. The Heat can only hope for more of the same this time around. "I think Ive put together some pretty good second seasons in my career," James said. "Hopefully I can continue to do that." Cheap Old Skool Sale . Meanwhile, the Jets extended their winning streak to four and remain perfect under Paul Maurice. Its the Jets second four-game winning streak of the season, the other coming in mid-November. Discount Old Skool . -- The top-seeded Alberta Pandas set up of an all-Canada West final against arch rival UBC at the CIS womens volleyball championship after a 3-0 win over the No. http://www.cheapoldskool.com/ . On Wednesday night, they showed that stellar defence and a little small ball can get the job done too. With pinch-runner Kevin Pillar aboard after Dioner Navarro opened the bottom of the ninth with a single, Anthony Gose dropped down an excellent bunt along the first-base line.Following unproductive meetings with Canadian Football League executives and the leagues legal counsel Friday, the Canadian Football League Players Association has decided to take a significant step to emphasize its solidarity in negotiations: The union has begun sending strike ballots by priority mail. A player confirmed to TSN on the condition of anonymity that he received his ballot yesterday. Another confirms hes been told to expect his shortly. "The unions executive committee insists a strike vote does not mean were pushing away from the table," the player said. "But we want the league to know were serious about our position." The players executive committee includes union president Scott Flory, vice-presidents Jay McNeil, Marwan Hage and Jeff Keeping and treasurer Brian Ramsay. Keeping (Toronto Argonauts) and Ramsay (Edmonton Eskimos) are the two active players on the committee. The league and players are still scheduled to meet in Toronto Wednesday - eight days before the current CBA is set to expire oon May 29 - when the players will table a new proposed collective bargaining agreement that will include a revenue sharing scheme with the union requesting a percentage of gate, sponsorship and television revenue. Cheap Vans Old Skool. With each revenue stream the union is proposing its share be in the range of approximately 40-55 per cent. The proposal includes a salary cap of approximately $7 million in the first year of a new CBA. In 2013, the last year of the current agreement, the salary cap was $4.4 million. The league has so far been reluctant to discuss any revenue sharing model. "Weve been told to expect a step back tomorrow (from the owners)," the player says. The CFLPA requires more than 50 per cent of its players to confirm a strike vote. But the players must adhere to provincial labour laws, and cannot picket immediately. According to a source with knowledge of the talks, only players in certain provinces, where a strike vote can happen before the current bargaining expires, have received their ballots. ' ' '