Sports

LeBron James Talks About His Next-Level Mentality Going Into The 2012 Game 6 ECF Game Against Boston Where He Put Up 45 Points

#LeBron James
by
LeBron James 2012 NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 6

Getty Image / Mike Ehrmann


LeBron James absolutely exploded on the court in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals against Boston Celtics. For anyone who isn’t great at remembering specific dates, this was back when he was playing for the Miami Heat and had an incredible team around him but LeBron needed to do something BIG.

Stuck at home in Los Angeles right now, where the entire state of California is under self-quarantine, LeBron James took to Instagram Live late last night/early this morning to answer questions from fans. One fan asked him what his mentality was going into that Game Six and it’s actually a very interesting response from LeBron.

I’d have expected him to say something like ‘I had to do whatever it takes’ but it’s clear that he was feeling the weight of the world on him at that moment. In his mind, that was clearly a pivotal moment in his career and he was able to get the job done.

LeBron had this to say:

“My mentality was like, if we lose, Pat Riley may break us all up,”

“And I don’t want that. It may be the quickest breakup in basketball history. And not only might they break it all up, my legacy is going to take a huge, huge hit if I don’t go out here and perform at an all-time high. Win, lose or draw, I had to be focused, I had to be locked in and lead us to victory. I didn’t know if it was going to happen that way but that was my mindset.”

LeBron James put up 45 points in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals (19-of-26 shooting) and he tacked on 15 rebounds and 5 assists. The Miami Heat would go on to win the NBA Championship that year and LeBron James is considered by every NBA fan to be in the ‘G.O.A.T. Discussion’. Things could’ve ended very differently had he come up short in that game.

Here he talks about what NBA team he’d never play for:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B99ZWGSgYQd/

If you are missing the NBA right now and want to revisit highlights of that 2012 Eastern Conference Finals game you can see the SportsCenter highlights of LeBron’s performance right here:

In case you missed this bizarre news, LeBron James is currently being sued for $150,000 for copyright infringement for posting a picture of himself to Facebook. A pretty wild story.