LeBron James Opens Up about Losing to The Nuggets

I'm just curious about your emotions right now. I was thinking about it today and I was looking back, like every year, um, the common emotions when the season ended and some unique emotions depending on the team you were on. I won a championship. I don't know what those emotions are like, but how can you describe what the end of the season is like? Well, look, can we cheer up first before I right my wrong? Cheers, Cheers, Cheers, Cheers, Cheers, um, where am I emotionally? Right now, I don't know, to be honest, I have no idea where I am emotionally right now.

You know, obviously, you know that going against the defending champions in the first round is always going to be a tough challenge, we knew that. but we had so many opportunities, man, you know, and

losing

in five, two of them were game winners, you know, Jamal, you know his greatness, but we have so many opportunities, obviously, being up, you know, 20, you know, in the game, uh, second game, and they. You're building and

losing

that game and having so many opportunities in other games, you feel like if you played here and you played there, you know it could have made a big difference, but you know when you play against a team like that you have nothing. margin for error and I think we made too many mistakes in some of the games, I mean I've seen some crazy stats about the minutes we were leading in the series compared to the minutes we were losing in the series, but we both know it's a bit Fool's Gold because most playoff games come down to one or two, three or four possessions, you know, and if you're not able to capitalize on those possessions or make plays during those possessions, then that's how you lose games.

So, you know, emotionally I feel like we were there, obviously, every game to be able to steal a game, but also at the same time you know we were and and that's why we lost the Series and it hurts, obviously, you know. being a competitor, I'm a competitor, you've been in several series in your career too, but man, I feel like you know a couple of plays here, a couple of plays there, you know we could have won the series, but the best guy won equipment. The best team won, sure, give credit, what do creditors do?

I think it's fair, I think it's fair. I want to get back to the singular play in a second, but I was thinking about the season's decline and it was. Having a conversation with someone who has worked in the NBA for a long time, a couple of weeks ago we were talking about the stress levels of different positions within the NBA, you know, the front office training the players, all that stuff. and I feel like, as a player, you're always nervous during the season, oh, there's no comfort level, your intensity, even like going to dinner with friends, you're still like wired thinking about the game and then and I think when the season ends , that was always the strangest transition, certainly, sometimes there's anger, there's certainly sadness, those emotions are there, but it's like I know this sounds weird, man, but sometimes when the season was over and I was like, " Okay, I need to figure out how I can do it.” He's re-entering society because I've had to be for the last seven eight months eight nine months yeah, sure, yeah, you're totally right, man, and you know he's readjusting to what reality really is, you know?

It's always difficult after the season because, like you said, you've been in a bubble, you know, for seven eight months, whatever the case may be, however long the season has been, re-acclimating to reality. Society is always a transition. Do you approach these types of offseasons differently with USA Basketball approaching? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know it's going to be a little bit different, you know, for me, um, probably over the last four or five years that I've followed. season I try to give my body at least two months of no basketball, you know, I still do, you know, like yoga and Pilates, and you know, walking, staying active, stretching and all that kind of stuff, but so far.

While I'm trying to get my body back in like two months, I just don't want to be on the basketball court at all, I actually like to train, but now it's a challenge because it's May 1st and in two months training camp starts in reality. Vegas and I don't want to go to training camp without doing anything on the court for two months, so I'm going to change things up a little bit. I'm not going to go crazy with my training. Whatever the case, I'll probably take the month of May off to give my body a chance to rest and then, probably around the first or second week of June, I'll start getting back into the game a little bit.

You know, start hitting some routine shots and get an f for the ball, so now I have the honor ball that I have to work with as well, so it's a little different, but you know, it just acclimates my body to just some of the moves you just did. you never do it on a regular basis on a day to day basis as far as when you do it, you know, training, so yeah, I'll change it up a little bit. I would always do the same thing for six to eight weeks, depending on when you know. the season, obviously, the years, the years I did, I made the finals, the Conference Finals, those two years, my break from basketball was a little bit shorter, but I kept my body going.

What I realized, though as I grew older, is that I can. I can't turn it off because once I turn it off, once I turn off the faucet, the water never comes back, so I became even more diligent in those breaks like my basketball breaks, like my lifting, my Pilates, my conditioning, uh, all of it. Mobility. things that I was working on, you know, having physical therapy, anything that I need to work on, like if I really took time off and didn't do anything like I'm going to do it, I'm just going to finish, that's the reality, um, There were some unique plays in that Denver series for sure and I see that we've been committed, I think committed and maybe maybe we haven't been perfect, but we've been committed to avoiding or at least trying the speech that I'm on, of course.

The other side of this, working in the media, so I see it all right and a lot of that is because it's you, honestly, a lot of it is blaming this player for this play or this player for this performance. I get it, man, like it's part of the job I understand that I think what you said is important and this is not an excuse for the Lakers it's not what you said that's important Denver is the best team as an analyst I would have told you yesterday I would have said that four months ago, hey LeBron, I think Denver is a better team than you guys, like me, I'd be honest with you, they've played them two years in a row, we've spent some time happily, he's definitely a part of the puzzle, a big part. of the puzzle what makes the Denver Nuggets puzzle so difficult to solve um I think you know obviously it starts with Joker obviously um but I don't think Jamal Murray gets enough credit um you know, you know he's not a part of, you know everything the NBA talk speech he's not part of the speech I'm an Allstar every year you know all that and I think you know people get caught up and just think it's just Joker Joker Joker how do you stop the man Joker when it comes to nuts? clutch time, yes, Joker will make a lot of plays, but it's that Jamal Murray that's going to send you home and me and I'm a victim of that, you know, and he just makes plays, it's a calming feeling when the ball is in his hand and they are and they are working on that clear side side one5 pick and roll or that middle pick and roll or that angled pick and roll where he is driving and Joker setting it up or he is playing a touch game with Joker where he has the could come out at full speed he has the ability to go out the back door he's so Shifty the step back goes to the right you know it's not you can't even you can't even dictate which direction you know you know how you can see well this guy shoots better going this way this guy shoots the dribble going this way well he gave us two winners in the series one was a step back to the right the other was a step back to the left so what did he do what do you do? and yeah, we could have played the last one a little bit better defensively, uh, but that's a different story and then adding those two guys, Michael Porter Jr is a laser, I don't know if it's just because he watches the Lakers. or gold or whatever he feels like versus that one doesn't fail, he doesn't fail.

I called the only game where he literally didn't fail in La, literally didn't fail, literally didn't fail and I was like man, this is it. you can't even understand you know how they say close the gap get to his CH he doesn't even see you he doesn't see you and then those other two guys man you got kcp out there a guy who just who is just a winner who makes winning plays he could have zero points, he can have 15 points and he's going to excuse me, he's going to have an impact on the game and the same thing with Aaron Gordon, you know, Aaron Gordon, if he has two points or if he has 20 points his impact doesn't change. to rebound he's going to stay he knows his role he's going to be in a dunk he's going to cut from the baseline you know he's on guard um I just think they're super uh good Well, well I'm organized as a group and then obviously you know that their coaching staff is very good, you know, with their strengths and they take advantage of their strengths, they avoid their weaknesses, you know, they avoid their weaknesses, there are not many who see the difference. between great teams, good teams and bad teams is how many possessions you can have over the course of the game, that means absolutely nothing, which means that a great team won't go through too many games where they had terrible possessions where it was like What are they.

We are making a great team that would never throw the ball in the post to a player and we would expect him to score if that is not what he does. A great team would never pick and roll a player if he is not a pick. and roll player that's where the greats are, the good and the bad Denver, they know what their strengths are and it's no one on that court who does something that they shouldn't be doing and that's what I think that's what which he finally does. a great team Doc Rivers always talks about basketball, it's a game of mistakes, right, and it's like there's no one there.

They kill me for saying this, but I'll stand by it. I don't think there has ever been a perfect player. I don't think there has ever been a perfect team. I don't know a team that didn't lose the ball, didn't miss a shot, didn't lose a game like basketball, it's a game of mistakes. What you just said is, I think. Really important and it intensifies even more in the playoffs and that is having a purpose for each possession, yes, that is having an intention of what we are trying to do on this possession. I think that is an important point.

I'm glad you brought up Michael Porter Jr because, to me, he's really embraced the role that he has and part of it, I've talked to him about it and part of it is that the guy has had incredible injuries, back surgeries, playing with the foot dropped. Those things he's just grateful to play now, but I think he's the toughest player, not like a primary scorer, right, he's the toughest player to shut down, yeah, the reason I say he's 610 right, he rises on his jump shot and they always maintain it. Elite spacing, so if you make a mistake with your guy, you make a mistake in Jamal Murray Nico yic's coverage on a pick and roll and you have to react to that, you have to overwhelm him, he's just going to shoot over the top and if for some reason you soon get there, he has an elite in driving Closeouts runs, he really has it, whether he's getting to his midi or getting to the basket, and like he's not a main guy, but he's a star in his role and as we see all the time in the playoffs those guys become even more important in a series because the goal of the play, LeBron, you know, the goal of the playoffs is how to make every player uncomfortable and it starts with the star players.

How can we make star players uncomfortable? Yeah, I mean, listen, Jamal hit two game-winners for us, but he looks at his numbers, we did a great job with Jamal in terms of making it difficult for him, he shot maybe into the 30s, maybe me. I don't know the stats, but maybe 30 on the field in our series and obviously Joker is going to do what he did. Michael Porter is the one who kicked our butts. You know he kicked our butts and you remember we talked about being lucky to win a championship Denver is a case of there's no way to get out of high school before back surgery Michael Porter would even be in Denver this guy was a pick number one projected in the draft, you know, and because of You know, teams get alarmed and whatever the case may be it can't be because of that and he slipped in the draft and he slid right into the perfect position and the perfect spot. , they waited for him, they didn't brush him, whatever the case may be, so he came in and then he was still a little bit injured like you said with his foot drop or whatever the case may be, but now he's in a perfect situation, he's in a perfect situation around two guys and you shouldn't just keep your eyes on him. if you're defending as a main defender but then there's another set of eyes, then there's going to be someone on that floor that you're going to forget about, um and you know he makes you pay like you said 610,he, he he shoots at the top of his at the top of his jump shot at his elbow it's right in your face too so you can't close the gap because if you hit his elbow there are three free throws and he's a great player Hi guys , thanks for listening, thanks for watching the mind the game podcast, if you like it, please press. that subscribe button thanks