Max Strus has acknowledged that the pressure of playing on basketball’s biggest stage affected him during the 2023 NBA Finals.

Strus struggled badly in Game 1 and admitted that the magnitude of the moment became difficult to ignore as the entire basketball world focused on the championship series.

“Game 1, you can look at history and can’t deny the stats. My game 1 was awful. The amount of pressure that goes into the finals and everybody in the world is watching this game and talking about this game, you can’t escape it. It did get the best of me. I’ll admit it.”

For Strus, simply realizing that he had reached the NBA Finals added another mental challenge.

“You walk in and you’re like ‘I’m really playing in the NBA finals. This is nuts.’ It probably did get in my head a little bit.”