When LeBron James burst onto the scene, he was merely a teenager. He had a lot of expectations placed on him at that age, and looking back at his career now, he has exceeded them all. However, an 18-year-old LeBron once shocked the media by displaying maturity beyond his years at a press conference in 2003 as he spoke on whether or not he felt any pressure to meet said expectations.
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The conference took place before ‘the King’ had even played a single NBA game, but he had already established himself as a near household name at that point. His blockbuster $90 million deal with Nike was the most talked about shoe deal in the country.
When asked how much pressure he felt in that moment, the 18-year-old simply replied, “There’s no pressure. There’s no pressure at all. I’ve been getting pressure since I was 10… I’m just doing what I love to do, playing the game of basketball.”
He likened the entire ordeal to the reporter’s job of asking him questions. He said, “If I asked y’all that question, y’all would say the same thing. I mean, is there any pressure to ask me these questions, it’s no pressure because y’all know how to do what y’all do right?”
An 18 year old who was labeled as ‘The Chosen One’ by the entire nation not feeling a hint of pressure is incredibly rare and approaches ‘one of one’ status. Having skipped college and going straight to the pros was an incredibly ballsy move. However, taking a peak behind the curtain and seeing the kind of man James was becoming; his confidence and maturity alone was enough to ensure his success in the NBA.
Having already wowed the audience with his first answer, he would proceed to display more of his elite mentality with the next. When asked about what the definition of success was for him as a rookie, LeBron immediately responded with, “Well I never say myself. I say, my team. It’s not about myself it’s about how well as a team we can grow, as a family, and just get better every single day.”
He said any slip-up from the team would result in another subpar season for them, and it wasn’t something they wanted to go through again. Displaying his “team first mentality” even at the age of 18, James showed the world what could be expected of him as a leader in the future.
James in 2015: “I don’t believe in pressure”
In an interview with Bally Sports in 2015, James reiterated his then 12-year-old take on pressure by saying he didn’t believe in it.
“I don’t believe in pressure. I think pressure is created by what you do out on the floor.. you just go out and trust everything you’ve been doing over the course of your years.”
For James, this rings true every time he steps out on the floor, and other athletes can use his words as a mantra as well. The idea that pressure isn’t something that can be applied by others, but rather yourself, is the core belief for James, and it has proved to be right every time.
For example, in his infamous 2011 Finals loss, LeBron had the worst playoff series of his career. There were mounting expectations on the Heat to win a title after their superteam was assembled, and it looked a lot like he fell victim to pressure.
Famously having claimed he ‘lost his love for the game’ after the series, James had the perfect comeback by winning the next two Finals series. In those two years, he looked a lot more relaxed and put on some of the best basketball the NBA had seen.
It almost felt like he took his own advice and realized that he was placing way too much pressure on himself by not doing what he loved to do.
