When LeBron James played more than 50 minutes in leading his Cavaliers to a win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the physical and emotional toll it took was evident in his walk-off interview immediately following the contest.
Simply put, James invested everything he had in this series, and after coming up short when facing a Warriors team that simply proved itself to be better, not surprisingly, the loss still stings days after the fact.
From a video with Bleacher Report ( as transcribed by ESPN.com):“It hurt to lose, and I’m still in a little funk right now, but I’m trying to work my way out of it,” James said.
“You know, for a team that’s first getting together, in our first year to be able to reach the Finals -- not saying I’m happy with the results, but I’m proud of our guys,” James said. “Just the growth that they had from the first day we walked in the gym to the other day, us losing, I’m proud of the guys and what they was able to accomplish.”
“Being back home is everything that I dreamed of, everything that I thought about,” he said. “Being back with these fans, being back with this community, just being back here and trying to bring joy to this city, which deserves it. Bringing a sense of pride to this city, which deserves it. Giving this city something to talk about, which they deserve.”
LeBron repeated the part about being not satisfied with the results about three separate times, and it was clear that he slipped this particular media obligation in while he was doing other things; LeBron was receiving a haircut from his guy the entire time he was speaking.
But the words were honest nonetheless, and it’s one of many reasons why the city of Cleveland couldn’t be happier to have the best basketball player in the game on its side.