For many fans, LeBron James will arguably go down as the greatest player in NBA history. What makes it even more impressive is that James was drafted with expectations to be the next face of the league. At minimum, he met them; at maximum, he exceeded them.
However, those expectations come with a lot of pressure. Even if pressure didn’t get to James, that didn’t make it any less difficult. More than two decades after he entered the NBA, he gave some helpful advice to his younger self.
LeBron James Gets Real on Mental Health Following Expectations
When asked about what he would tell his younger self regarding his mental health, James gave an honest and thorough answer to that question during a May 19 segment of the “Uninterrupted” podcast.
“You have to protect that,” James said. “It’s OK sometimes to hold some stuff in, but if you hold it in for too long, then it can become overwhelming. So, to be able to have a friend or a parent or a guardian around that you can just talk to, to be able to just release that energy, release that tension, or anything. For me, it could be a big game that was coming up the next night.”
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James further emphasized the point of talking to a confidant to help out with mental health.
“To be able to talk to someone, I think that helps out a lot. So I would tell my younger self just to make sure you communicate it. Let it be known how you’re feeling and talk about things,” he said.
James came into the NBA with expectations to take the reins as the league’s biggest superstar since Michael Jordan — expectations so high that it was unfair to James to try to meet.
In 2025, it’s clear he lived up to the hype. He’s had one of the most decorated careers ever. But it didn’t come without criticism, like when he made “The Decision” in 2010, or pressure-packed moments, like Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs or Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
Even though James won both of those games with the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively, that doesn’t mean it was easy for him to do it. Having confidants played a part in him getting through that. It also goes to show how he persevered through his greatest challenges, both on and off the court.
