It is universally acknowledged that the 2011 NBA Finals was the lowest point of LeBron James’ storied career. “The King” himself admitted as much during the April 3 episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast with JJ Redick.
“I played like [expletive]. I told myself the way I played [was] unacceptable,” said James, who averaged less than 18 points through six games against the Mavericks.
However, during the same podcast, James also cited Miami’s roster construction for the loss to Dallas.
“We had to build the Super Team around all minimum guys, which was still okay, but we didn’t fill out the complimentary guys enough,” James recalled. “We didn’t have enough complimentary guys to make it all work. And we still made it to the Finals.”
LeBron James Gets Called Out
James’ comments about Miami’s roster did not sit well with ESPN analyst Stephen A Smith, who blasted the Lakers star for suffering from a case of revisionist history.
On the April 4 edition of “The Stephen A Smith Show,” the outspoken personality didn’t hold back on James.
“That is some straight [expletive],” Smith said. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I know you didn’t just say that with the cameras rolling. That’s [expletive].”
Smith then ran down the Heat’s 2011 roster, which included role players such as Mario Chalmers, Mike Bibby, Udonis Haslem, Eddie House, Juwan Howard, Mike Miller and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, to go with the All-Star trio of James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
“LeBron — you want to make the argument about your roster — I totally understand,” Smith continued. “…He makes valid points about the roster, but my point is, what does that have to do with you, LeBron? With that roster, the Miami Heat were up 2-1 in the Finals before losing three straight.”
Smith pointed out that James went scoreless in the fourth quarter of Game 4 and scored only two points in the fourth quarter of Game 5.
“And in Game 6, he had 21, which is significantly and precipitously lower than his [career] average,” Smith continued. “You didn’t lose because of the roster. You lost because of you. Because you weren’t who you are.”
LeBron James Did Bounce Back
To James’ credit, he righted the wrongs of 2011 in subsequent years by capturing the 2012 and 2013 NBA Championships. He would add to his legacy by hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2016 and 2020 with the Cavaliers and Lakers, respectively.
During an episode of HBO’s “The Shop” in 2018, James referred to the 2011 NBA Finals loss as his “greatest achievement” as he felt the loss prepared him to face adversity.
“I’m not happy that I lost, but I left that Finals like, ‘Yo ‘Bron, what the [expletive] was you on, man. You were overthinking everything, you didn’t show up, you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, and now you can’t even sleep at night because you didn’t give it all that you had,’” James said in Oct. 2018 on his Uninterrupted platform.
“After that Finals, I was just like, ‘That’s never happening again. I may lose again, I may not win everything, but I’ll never fail again,’” James said.
