Over the weekend, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar small forward LeBron James was spotted at his son’s AAU basketball tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada. As most Cavs fans know, James is one of the hardest working athletes in the NBA, but he’s also a great father.
A strenuous workout regiment, an uncompromising diet, and countless hours of practice time in the gym are just a few aspects of the King’s dedication to the game of basketball. So, with his son’s team gathered in a post-loss locker room, the King shared an inkling of what it’s like to be hunted.
“Obviously, I come around and watch you from afar,” James said during his speech. “But ya’ll gotta understand that when ya’ll come to a tournament, everybody wants to see ya’ll lose. Ya’ll don’t see that? Every time we do something good, it’s just us clapping for each other. Any time another team that we’re going against (does well), the whole (expletive) crowd is going crazy. They want to see us lose. So we gotta’ approach it like, every time we go out to play, we gotta’ play for one another and nobody else. So we can’t have careless turnovers, we can’t be out there lollygagging. I don’t care if they can dunk. I don’t care if they can jump over the rim. That sh– doesn’t define this right here (your heart and drive). Ya’ll were in the game the whole game, and ya’ll just let it slip away. They didn’t take the game away. It wasn’t them, it was ya’ll. We gotta know every game that we go out here, they want to see us lose, alright?”
While it’s true that James’ words sound a bit harsh — especially for youngsters, it seems he was just trying to instill a certain mindset. After all, who knows the spiteful guise of scrutiny and expectation better than LeBron Raymone James?
