When Charles Barkley sounded off on LeBron James' meltdown in 2011 NBA Finals: "Look where your a** at right now"
Before LeBron James secured his first championship in the 2012 Finals, he underwent scrutiny from the media and especially former NBA player Charles Barkley.
“You think it’s that easy huh?" Barkley said. "Look where your a** at right now. You at the bottom of the barrel again just like everybody else.”
In the finals series against the Dallas Mavericks, LeBron James underperformed as he averaged 17.8 points per game (47.8% shooting, including 32.1% from 3-point range), 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists.
His worst outing was in Game 4 at Dallas, wherein, he only had 8 points (3-of-11 shooting, including 0-of-3 from 3-point range), 9 rebounds and 7 assists.
After dominating against Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls in Eastern Conference finals, he looked like a completely different player.
During the third-round series against the Bulls, LeBron James averaged 25.8 ppg (44.7% shooting, including 38.9% from 3-point range), 7.8 rpg and 6.6 apg. He had an excellent series which made his finals outing all the more puzzling and disappointing.
In an all-star matchup against Dirk Nowitzki, the Dallas star came up on top. Nowitzki averaged 26.0 ppg (41.6% shooting, including 36.8% from 3-point range) and 9.7 rpg.
During the 2006 finals against the Miami Heat, Dirk lost the series 4-2 after leading the series 2-0. His finals performance was spectacular as his Mavericks came into the series as the lower seed and finally got the job done this time.
LeBron James recalls the disappointing loss in the 2011 finals to the Dallas Mavericks
In a segment from Uninterrupted's "The Shop," LeBron James opens up on what he went through after the finals loss.
"My first in Miami, I was down there and I wanted to prove everybody wrong," James said. "I literally lost myself in the moment. I lost myself. And I got all the way to the championship that year and lost. And the reason I knew, I was like 'We lost because I wasn't even there."
LeBron also added that after that loss, he learned an important lesson about blocking out noise from critics as they always found something to say.
"25 was my first year in Miami and we lost in my first year," James said. "I think one of the first ones that I started to learn is that you can't really give a f**k about what people say no more. Because everybody gonna critique everything you do, no matter what you do. No matter if you believe it or not. It's wasted energy."
After the loss, James went on to win back-to-back championships with the Heat, then one with the Cavaliers in 2020, and another ring with the Lakers in 2020.