LeBron James isn’t making excuses for the Los Angeles Lakers being swept out of the playoffs by the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Instead, the four-time MVP believes the difference between the two teams came down to one thing: talent.
“I understand that. You get caught up in ring culture and things of that nature,” James said speaking on the latest episode of his Mind the Game podcast. “But at the end of the day there’s 29 teams, if that’s the case, who are all failures if that’s always the narrative. Because there’s only one champion every year. I have the passion and the admiration to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy up every single year,” James continued. “But I also have a realization of what particular team I have been a part of in that particular year.
“And understanding this year, we fought and we played to the maximum ability of our team, but ultimately, if we’re being completely honest, we were out-talented. We were not outworked. They didn’t out-physical us. They didn’t outsmart us. I felt like we were just out-talented by OKC. They just possessed so much more talent and yea they might have had a couple more possessions where some IQ can kick in but that happens throughout the course of the game, that goes for both teams.
“I feel like there’s times where we had moments where we out-IQ’d them. But at the end of the day we failed in talent. OKC just possessed so much more talent than us. You can tip your cap to them obviously and understand that. But yeah, you can’t get caught up in that especially when you know you’re undermanned for sure.”
Now, attention shifts toward James’ future as the 41-year-old enters unrestricted free agency this offseason – with retirement still a possibility.