National Basketball Association

LeBron has 'nightmares' about NBA Finals loss

Published Jul. 12, 2015 5:33 p.m. ET

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LeBron James has grown quite familiar with losing in the NBA Finals during his 12-year career. The 30-year-old has made six NBA Finals appearances and won just two championships, but that doesn’t mean losing on the biggest stage has gotten any easier.

In an interview with Ethan Skolnick and Howard Beck on Bleacher Report Radio Sunday, LeBron said he has been having “nightmares” since the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games last month.

“I just don’t feel like you ever move on,” he said. “Even from losing in the Finals, because you feel like you’re right there and have a great opportunity to do something special. I gotta shake it a little bit because I’ve got these three kids running around this house every day that don’t allow me to not be happy. At the same time, I can never get away from losing in the Finals.

“I have, I guess, nightmares now about situations throughout the games. It’s always replaying in my head. It was definitely difficult. I’m getting better every day, but it took quite a while for me to get out of the funk.”

LeBron finally broke through when he won his first championship in 2012. He knows it’s unlikely that he will ever catch Michael Jordan, so now the goal is to bring a title to the city of Cleveland. In many ways, LeBron started over last offseason when he returned to the place where his NBA career began.

There wasn’t much more James could have done in the NBA Finals this year. He averaged a ridiculous 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists in the series. That said, we’ll leave it to Nike ads like this one to make excuses. Players always wonder whether they could have done something different to change a negative outcome. LeBron is no exception.

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