LeBron James doesn’t care what anyone says. When it comes to media criticism, James has abandoned his old ways of taking notes and heeding the flak he’s given day-in and day-out.
LeBron James on media criticism: ‘I stopped caring a long time ago’
James talked to reporters during shootaround on Saturday, the night before Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
The night before the Cavaliers enter into a pivotal Game 2 trailing 1-0 in their NBA Finals showdown against the Golden State Warriors, James says he tunes out all the outside noise.
“I really don’t hear the noise. I couldn’t really care less. It really doesn’t matter to me,” he said, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “The narrative and people writing articles and things like that, I don’t care. Those things doesn’t bother me. So it’s hard for me to even tell my teammates, ‘hey, don’t listen to it, because I don’t even get involved in it.’”
“I stopped caring a long time ago, so it doesn’t even bother me at all.”
It was only a year ago, though, that James said he got “secret motivation” from people who doubted him, and it was in 2011 during his NBA Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks that he indeed took note of media criticism and publicly thanked them for their words.
This time around, though, the outside noise may be beneficial.
The focus has been put on the Cleveland defense, which gave up 113 points to a Warriors team with only two players in double-digit scoring. But it was the Cavaliers’ sloppy, inefficient offense that allowed Golden State to get out in transition and allowed Kevin Durant to get from end to end untouched multiple times throughout the game.
James could probably use some help from his supporting cast, too. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love combined for just 39 points, with Love managing only 4-of-13 shooting. J.R. Smith made his first shot and never made another. Deron Williams and Kyle Korver each went scoreless, and Tristan Thompson recorded only 4 rebounds in 22 minutes.
So even though James is tuning out the outside noise, his teammates should be taking notes. And if he won’t listen to the media, maybe Irving and Love can pass along a few pointers.
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