LeBron James has been one of the most polarizing players in NBA history. For a generational talent, he has gone through a lot of struggles and obstacles throughout his career.
Things such as ‘The Decision,’ the 2012 NBA Finals, and his struggles to defeat the Golden State Warriors have all been criticized and analyzed to the highest degree.
Of course, in the midst of that, James has also still won three NBA championships, four regular season MVPs, and three Finals MVPs — cementing himself as one of the greatest players in league history. And James feels his accomplishments were helped by the obstacles he had to overcome to get there.
Even now, there are some questions surrounding James as he enters his 17th NBA season after failing to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2004-05 NBA season. In a recent interview with Amani Abraham of WKYC, James spoke about experience being the best teacher in life:
“I think the best teacher in life is experience. And for you to go through things and to fail and not let failure stop you. Some of my best accomplishments was the times that I failed because I knew that I had to either get better. I knew I had, I wasn’t going to stop.” says James
James continued, leaning towards his faith as a reason he can get through anything put in front of him:
“I just don’t believe the man above ever gives you anything that you can’t handle. It might be tough, it might be hard but he’s never going to give you too much that you can’t handle,” says James.
This is simply a sign of the character of James. A lot of people would break under the pressure that James faces and when someone has dealt with failure and criticism at the level of him, it can be daunting and overwhelming but the 34-year-old always persist.
Following everything that has happened in the 2019 NBA offseason, James will be under an obscene amount of pressure to lead the Lakers to a championship with Anthony Davis.