LeBron James has borne the weight of expectation and pressure for so long, he’s likely just immune to the feeling at this point. A high school sensation, James was anointed as the next big NBA superstar before he even got to the league, and he ended up exceeding those expectations and putting himself right in the GOAT conversation.
LeBron James was drafted at No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he was already being offered deals approaching $100 million by companies at that point. James went to a franchise that had only middling success in the past, and as the hometown hero, was expected to take them to greater heights than they had been before. The pressure on LeBron must have been immense, but it seems that the King wasn’t as bothered by it as nearly any other person in his situation would have been.
Former Cavalier Sasa Pavlovic Shared LeBron James’ Epic Answer To Him About Dealing With Pressure
During LeBron’s first sting in Cleveland, he didn’t have any stars around him. He managed to take the team to the NBA Finals anyway but fell short, thanks to his supporting cast. That’s not to say he didn’t build relationships with his teammates at the time. Aleksandar ‘Sasa’ Pavlovic was one of his teammates from 2004 to 2009, and he spoke in a documentary about how LeBron dealt with pressure.
“I actually sat next to him like 5 seasons. Right next to his locker was my locker. And I used to ask him like, ‘How you don’t feel pressure? How you get thirty every night and we all know that all the teams are trying to stop you from getting thirty?’ And he’s like, ‘Pressure? I don’t feel pressure.’ When he say that word, it’s like it don’t exist to him. Like he’s tough mentally, it’s amazing.”
At the age of 21, LeBron James averaged 31 points per game in the NBA, and again at the age of 23, he averaged 30. He was a phenom, and he was so good, so young that a failure to win titles was already taken as an individual failure on his part. LeBron has since gone on to win 4 championships and been to the Finals 9 times after his first Cleveland stint, so it’s safe to say that pressure still isn’t much of a concern for him.
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