Lakers: LeBron James Reveals the Most Challenging Moment of His Storied Career

LeBron James talked about the toughest moment of his 19-year career thus far.

LeBron James has seen it all in his 19-year NBA career. He's been the young phenom, the one man show leading a team to the NBA Finals, the villain, and the grizzled superstar that just keeps putting up eye-popping stats. Since LeBron has plenty of time on his hands this postseason, he's been quite active on Twitter.

On Monday afternoon, LeBron engaged some of his 51.3M followers in a "Q&A". The questions ranged from the results of his most recent 1-on-1 game against his son Bronny to what centers from the 90's would still be in the MVP conversation if they played in today's NBA. 

One fan asked the four-time MVP what the toughest moment of his illustrious has been. For LeBron, it was his first year as the NBA villain in Miami when his stacked Heat team lost to the Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals in six. 

Losing in the finals to Dallas after playing like 💩💩!! I hit the reset button, went back to the basics, worked on things in my game I needed to get better at so the defense couldn't just sit on 1 thing. Hours & hours & hours everyday in the off season on it. Came back 🔒 in! 🤷🏾‍♂️

— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 17, 2022

For those that forgot, that was the postseason where Dirk Nowitzki went on one of the greatest tears in modern NBA history. Dirk averaged 27.7 points per game in the playoffs and led the veteran Mavericks to one of the biggest upsets in the NBA Finals over LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh.

The Mavericks defensive scheme neutralized LeBron. He averaged just 17.7 PPG and shot 32.1% from three that series. In the clinching game for Dallas, LeBron scored 21 points and had the same number of turnovers (six), as assists. 

Those were the days before LeBron was an above-average three-point shooter, and it showed.

As LeBron noted in his reply, he came back a much different player for the 2011-2012 season. He shot 56.5% from the field during the regular season, won his second-straight MVP, and averaged 30.3 PPG in the playoffs to oust a young Thunder team featuring Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook in five games in the NBA Finals for his first of four NBA championships.

His toughest moment led to back-to-back championships and his transformation from a great player, to one of the best to ever do it.