Stephen A. Smith rips LeBron James after dissing the Miami Heat

• LeBron James says the Miami Heat didn’t have enough to win in 2011.
• He argues the Big 3 didn’t have help.
• Stephen A. Smith called him out.

LeBron James Makes Up Excuse For 2011 Blunder

LeBron James has always been considered one of the best players in NBA history. Nonetheless, his lack of success in the NBA Finals, especially in the early stages of his career, has always been a stain in his otherwise perfect résumé.

James lost in the Finals twice before finally winning his first ring, and that happened in a shortened season against a young Oklahoma City Thunder team, so some people still hold that against him.

He joined the Miami Heat to team up with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, becoming the most-hated player in the league. On top of that, his squad blew a 2-1 lead to an aging Dallas Mavericks team in the biggest stage.

LeBron James Blames Poor Roster For Heat’s Shortcomings Vs. Mavs

Recently, James looked back on that failure. Talking to JJ Redick on their Mind The Game podcast, he blamed the team’s lack of depth for not being able to get the job done:

“Obviously, my first year in Miami, yeah, we had a Big 3; everyone said its a superteam, but we had to build our team around all minimum guys, which was still okay, but we didn’t fill out the complimentary guys enough,” James said.

Despite having some players who were instrumental in winning two rings in the following seasons, James believes they didn’t have enough at the time to get pat Dirk Nowitzki and company.

“Yeah, we had Rio [Chalmers], we had Udonis [Haslem], but you know we didn’t have enough as far as enough complimentary guys to actually make it all work, and we still made it to the Finals,” James added.

Stephen A. Smith Calls LeBron Out

With that in mind, ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith didn’t hesitate to put LeBron on blast. He called him out for making up that excuse when he severely underperformed in that series:

“LeBron James, that is some straight bullsh-t,” Smith said. “You gotta be kidding me. I know that you didn’t just say that with the cameras rolling. That’s bullsh-t! Somebody gotta say, so I’m gonna say it. That was not about your roster. That was about you!”

James averaged 17.8 points per game in the Finals, which was far below his season average of 26.7 points. On top of that, he scored eight points on just 11 shots in Game 4, and he didn’t even have a single point in the fourth quarter.

At the end of the day, LeBron doesn’t have anything left to prove at this point in his career, and he’s done more than enough to redeem himself and make his GOAT case. But this didn’t happen that long ago, so people haven’t forgotten, and that excuse isn’t valid.