“$1 billion net worth LeBron James pretty much said ‘y’all broke and I’m up'”: When the Lakers star put his doubters on notice after disappointing Finals loss to Mavericks

LeBron James

LeBron James has come a long way from the start of his career to where he is now, but back in 2011, he really had to prove to his haters that greatness would come.

Four championships don’t do justice to the kind of career LeBron has had. He made the Finals 10 straight years, and now he’s knocking on the doorstep of overtaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the NBA’s all time leading scorer.

In his second stint with the Cavaliers, he achieved the unthinkable. In the 2015-16 season, LeBron came back from a 3-1 deficit against the record breaking 73-9 Golden State Warriors to deliver on his promise of bringing Cleveland a title.

LeBron’s hopes for a fifth and potentially sixth title (to catch up with Michael Jordan) are still up in the air. His Lakers severely underperformed last season, and now they have a lot of work to do to get back into contending status.

However, things weren’t always so great for LeBron. Back in 2011, he was probably at the lowest point in his career, and he really needed to step it up to even be remotely close to where he is now.

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LeBron James called his haters broke in 2011

Rewind it back to 2010. LeBron James just had another disappointing season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite giving it all to the franchise for years, they failed to surround him with an adequate supporting cast, and he had to accept another series loss to the formidable Boston Celtics.

That summer LeBron made his infamous ‘decision’, signing with the Miami Heat along with superstars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He made a long and elaborate speech about how Miami would win maybe seven or eight titles with the trio they had.

His words looked to be true as the Heat cruised through the Eastern Conference playoffs, but then they ran into Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks. After taking a 2-1 lead in the series, the Heat would lose the next three games in the series, losing the title.

LeBron was completely out of form, averaging only 17.8 points per game on 47.8% from the field and 32.1% from three. It was a massive failure, and the Heat star had his fair share of critics who already loathed his move to Miami as he was taking the ‘easy way out.’

However, after the Finals, LeBron had a scathing message for his haters. He essentially called them broke, and went off about how they were doing the same thing they’d been doing everyday.

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Post Edited By: Ashish Priyadarshi
LeBron James Miami Heat NBA

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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