LeBron James: I Lost Faith in Cavaliers Making Playoffs During Season

LeBron James has always publicly said he believes in his teammates.

Privately? Not so much. 

James admitted to ESPN's Rachel Nichols there was a point during the regular season he was unsure whether the Cleveland Cavaliers would make the playoffs. 

"It was at points where, 'OK, will the Cavs even make the playoffs?'" James said Wednesday. "And I was like, 'OK, I am not settling for that conversation—now that is just ridiculous. Now I have got to get into the postseason.'"

Struggling with a new roster of ill-fitting parts, the Cavs lost nine of 12 games during a difficult stretch in December and January. James himself even struggled during that period, scoring under 20 points five times and playing lackadaisical defense. 

"I was like, 'OK, I am not quite sure what we are going to do with this ball club; we are not playing good basketball,' but you can't sell yourself short," James told Nichols. "You have so many people looking up to you, you have so many kids to inspire and you, yourself, you have always talked about be as great as you can be every day, so I kind of hit that switch before the trade deadline."

The Cavs totally overhauled their roster at the deadline, trading Dwyane Wade, Channing Frye, Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Iman Shumpert and Derrick Rose. Their haul—George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Rodney Hood—was seen as a major upgrade at the time. James even famously said the Cavs have a "f--king squad now."

The results have not been as promising. James has led Cleveland to the Finals in spite of his teammates, a group that is fairly categorized among the worst supporting casts in NBA Finals history. He's averaging 34.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 8.8 assists during the Cavs' postseason run. No other Cavs player is averaging more than 13.9 points per game.

The Cavs enter the Finals facing historically long odds to win the title. Cleveland entered the series as +550 underdogs, per OddsShark.