LeBron not bothered by Finals pressure

Most players would feel the pressure of playing on the world's biggest stage at the NBA Finals.

But for LeBron James, a soon-to-be seven-time veteran of the final round, nothing that happens on the court is real pressure. It's a game. His greatest challenge came earlier in life.

"I don’t really get involved in the whole pressure thing," James told reporters Wednesday. "I think I’ve exceeded expectations in my life as a professional. I’m a statistic that was supposed to go the other way, growing up in the inner city, having a single-parent household. It was just me and my mother. So everything I’ve done has been a success.

"So as far as the game of basketball, I just go out and play it and have fun and love it and be true to the game and to my teammates and live with the results. So it doesn’t really get to me too much."

James' mother Gloria had him when she was 16 and raised him on her own. They moved from house to house in impoverished Cleveland neighborhoods before James grew old enough to support his family.

For James, making it from those humble circumstances dwarfs the stakes of a basketball series.

Nonetheless, qualifying for a sixth straight Finals is a grueling accomplishment, which James acknowledges.

"People look at my situation and take it for granted, seeing I’ve been here six straight times. They think it’s easy when it’s not," he said.