OAKLAND, Calif. — LeBron James wanted to be with his family, to hug his wife and three kids back in Ohio.

Visibly shaken by an event he couldn’t control, Cleveland’s star struggled Wednesday to focus on his seventh straight NBA Finals or the Golden State Warriors.

For the game’s best player, basketball was overshadowed by racism.

On the eve of the Cavaliers and Warriors meeting for the third straight year, police said James’ mansion in Los Angeles was vandalized in the morning with a racial slur spray painted onto the front gate.

Nearly a year since he sat at the same podium inside Oracle Arena and addressed Muhammad Ali’s impact as an activist following the heavyweight champion’s death, James discussed the daily challenges of being black in the U.S.

“No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough,” James said. “We have a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African-Americans until we feel equal in America. But my family is safe, and that’s what’s important.”

According to police, an unidentified person spray painted the N-word on the front gate of James’ $20 million home in the Brentwood neighborhood Wednesday morning. Neither James nor his family was home at the time.