LeBron James Defends Heat's NBA Championship Loss at Press Conference

LeBron James defended himself against critics after his Miami Heat lost the NBA Championship game against the Miami Heat.

James -- who was widely derided after his ESPN special "The Decision" in which he announced he was "bringing his talents" to Miami -- admitted the loss was a "personal failure" but he wasn't going to let it get him down: "It hurts of course, but I'm not going to hang my head low."

When asked if he was bothered that fans seemed happy to see him fail, James said, "Absolutely not, because at the end of the day, all the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today."

"They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that," he added.

"They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point."

Any time you feel like you get to the top of the mountain and you fall off, there's definitely a personal failure," James said.

Later, he Tweeted, "The Greater Man upstairs know when it's my time. Right now isn't the time."

Cleveland Cavaliers owners Dan Gilbert congratulated the Mavericks on Twitter and wrote, "There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE."