“LeBron James, you’re at the bottom of the barrel again just like everybody else”: When Charles Barkley roasted the then-Heat star for his meltdown in 2011 NBA Finals

LeBron James lost his cool after the 2011 NBA finals defeat to the Dallas Mavericks as he addressed his haters at a post match interview.

LeBron James is easily one of the best players to play at the NBA in this generation. While he has won several accolades and had hustled for years at the top stage, he has also seen his fair shares of failures aswell. It is during these failures that he understood that some people just wait to see him fail and live to mock or make fun of him.

Such was the case during the 2011 NBA finals when LeBron’s Miami Heat which had stars like Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade failed to clinch the Championship against the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat were favourites to win the title despite Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd’s presence in the Mavs side. But the outcome was not rosy for the legendary trio as they lost 4-2.

Therefore LeBron gave an iconic post-game interview which was buoyed by a lot of frustration as he addressed his haters. He said, “All the people who are rooting for me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow & have the same life that they had before they woke up today.”

“They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that.”

“They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point.”

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“He is not a natural born killer”: Charles Barkley criticizes LeBron James after the 2011 NBA finals

A lot of experts and former NBA players went onto criticise the tone of the interview. Former NBA legend and Analyst Charles Barkley called LeBron out for his comments in the post-match interview. He said:

“You [LeBron James] think it’s that easy huh? Look where your ass at right now. You at the bottom of the barrel again just like everybody else.”

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Chuck also criticised the media for always comparing LeBron with the likes of Michael Jordan. He felt that James is great but he is at the same level as Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen and has achieved so much mainly due to his physical attributes. “He’s not a natural born killer,” Chuck further added.