MIAMI -- After two days to reflect, LeBron James clarified his comments following the Miami Heat's loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
James had received some criticism for making a blanket statement that seemed to belittle fans who cheered against him and the Heat.
"All the people that was 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," James said Sunday.
"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. 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."
Tuesday, James backed down from those statements and said they were misinterpreted.
"Basically I was saying at the end of the day this season is over and -- with all hatred -- everyone else has to move on with their lives, good or bad. I do too," James said.
"It wasn't saying I'm superior or better than anyone else, any man or woman on this planet, I'm not. I would never ever look at myself bigger than anyone who watched our game. It may have come off wrong but that wasn't my intent."
The Heat are far from over their Finals loss to the Mavericks and were just beginning to put things in perspective as they cleaned out their lockers and went through final meetings on Tuesday. Dwyane Wade said he was in a state of depression. James said he was the definition of the word "low."
Two days after their Game 6 defeat, James said he was especially upset because he felt he let his teammates down with a poor performance. James averaged just 17.8 points and had several poor late-game efforts during the series as the Mavs won the final three games to take the title.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself not to let my teammates down, maybe to a fault at times," James said. "I didn't play up to my own standards. Did that cost us the Finals? I don't know. I'm not satisfied with my performance."
James was also asked if he had any regrets over the events of the last year, especially his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"You can't live your life going back and saying 'if I could do it again,' life doesn't run its course like that," James said. "There are times when you feel like if you did have another opportunity you would change it but you can't move on in life thinking about the past."
On a day when the Heat hoped to be playing a Game 7, Wade said he thought this season would be easier. The team came within two victories of a title but struggled at times as James, Wade and Chris Bosh had some issues meshing their roles. Wade admitted getting three All-Stars to fit was more challenging than it first appeared when they all signed with the Heat last summer.
"You come into a season and see the talent on your roster and you immediately think the game is going to be easier for you; you expect certain things to happen," Wade said. "You have to work the game, no one can come in and automatically be great at something."
Brian Windhorst covers the NBA for ESPN.com.