LeBron James is loved and hated, adored and derided, worshiped and burnt in effigy. He is the conduit which inspires divisive emotions and has managed to earn the affection of millions while alienating millions of others. It seems that half of the world wants to see him get his due while the other half grinds their teeth praying for him to get his supposedly just desserts.
Touted as the next big thing back in high school, LeBron has bulldozed his way into the history books with performances which may never be replicated. And yet for some reason, we love to hate him. Here’s a look at 10 reasons he’s hated so much, with an attempt to see if all the hate is justified.
1) Offensively challenged
When we talk about the greatest players to ever play the game, offensive prowess is given prominence. This is especially true if the player in question is anything but a center. Critics of LeBron James often point to his offence, or lack thereof, as his Achilles heel.
There is no question that LeBron James cannot light up a scoreboard like Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant can. Those two can average over 30 points a game in a heartbeat, but LeBron apparently cannot. Even though he’s done it in the 2007-08 season and he is averaging 27.2 points per game for his career.
James has led the league in scoring for just one season for a reason. He focuses on getting his teammates involved and taking over a game in crunch time. If LeBron tries to score on every possession, the defense will key in on him and reduce his efficiency. So what he chooses to do is pick his spots on offence while spreading the shots on the floor.
It is true that his jumper has let him down time and time again. The playbook on stopping him still says to let him beat you from afar. James doesn't carry a team by scoring though, he emboldens the team with his all-round play. He is the only player who can instantly make any team a near contender by himself.
There isn't another player in the league who can consistently give you 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. What's astonishing is that LeBron has made that stat line so commonplace, that he barely seems to exert himself while he claims his throne night in and night out.
2) Losing record in NBA Finals
If a scientific experiment is being conducted for the purpose of testing a hypothesis, you can be sure that 7 will be too little of a sample size to conclusively draw any conclusion. And yet champions are bestowed based on a few encounters.
That doesn't make the championship illegitimate, but it does beget the question, should we ought to condemn, deride, bemoan, and scoff at someone who has competed for a championship for the greater part of his career for not winning them all?
Getting to the NBA Finals is a slippery slope. You have to battle through the regular season while praying for the team to remain healthy, motivated and together. Then comes the grind of the playoffs, which make reaching the summit of the NBA Finals a marathon. It is no mean feat to make it to the Finals year after year, even if it’s in the Eastern Conference.
Tim Duncan is 5-1 in NBA Finals. Michael Jordan is 6-0. Kobe Bryant is 5-2. And LeBron James is 3-4. LeBron is in excellent company, though. There is another name which lost a great number of Finals before winning his first championship, Jerry West. The Logo finished his career with a 1-8 record in the Finals.
3) The Decision
“The Decision” was one of the most ill-advised moves by a professional athlete from a public relations standpoint. It was selfish, self-aggrandizing and a disaster from start to finish. Ripping out a city's heart on live television is a bad move for anyone, much less one who's seen as a hometown hero. There is no defending that, one only wishes LeBron had better advisors around him.
The best thing one can do after making a mistake is learning from it. LeBron definitely picked up a lesson. When Michael Jordan announced his comeback to basketball, he did it with just two words, "I'm back." Short and sweet, just like a tweet. Learning from the Decision, and perhaps taking a cue from the greatest press release of all time from the greatest of all time, LeBron announced his return to Cleveland with the simple words, "I'm coming home."
The world scoffed at LeBron for the Decision, not without justification. It was a horrendous move. But he's done things better the next time around.
4) Flopping
The delicate art of flopping has been snorted at by many players. Back in our time, no-blood-no-foul was the order of the day and so forth. Just watching the Detroit Pistons of old manhandle Michael Jordan feels painful. Thankfully, the days of players being bashed up are bygones with referees getting stricter. On the flip side, there’s no question that flopping has gained prominence in recent times.
LeBron James is one of the most physically imposing specimens in the league. Watching him drive to the rim and brush off errant defenders reminds one of a muscle car speeding down the runway with bugs splattering on the windshield to no avail. Being that big and strong makes his flopping even more egregious. How hard can a tinier frame collide with the locomotive to make him crumble to pieces?
For the very reason that hits on LeBron don’t knock him as hard, he has to sell the contact to get the legitimate call. And yes, LeBron has flopped in the past. The evidence speaks for itself.
At the end of the day, flopping is as sportsmanlike as intentional fouling is. Both activities are designed to gain advantage of the rules. The problem with flopping is that it is seen as an unmanly action with testosterone-tinted glasses. Every star in the league flops to some degree these days. It is a contemptible act though.
5) WWE Intro
As if the Decision wasn’t bad enough, LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh took things to another level when they introduced themselves to the Miami Heat in a pyro-rich performance which would be more at home at WWE Smackdown. Never have any three players been as happy with themselves as these three at that introduction.
It was as if they recognised the role of heels they were being painted as, and decided to go for broke in that direction. Their performance was as heel-worthy as one could hope for, culminating in a promise to get “Not one, not two…(ending at seven rings)” for the Miami Heat. We know how that turned out.
To complete the WWE trip, LeBron presented the Heat with WWE-style championship belts in 2014.
6) Jumps from team to team
It is said that LeBron switches teams like a chamois of the Alps leaping from craig to craig. The loyalists, the old bloods, the good ol' crowd have scoffed at LeBron for not sticking with one team. He’s been derided for being tough, tough as in tough to please. As in, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.' LeBron gets going from a team when it seems to be in dire straits.
When things are falling apart, LeBron is the first to desert the sinking ship. It did work out well for him, though.
LeBron spent 7 seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers before bolting for the Miami Heat. He then spent four seasons with them before coming back to Cleveland. How did that work out for him? He got two rings in Miami, and his return to Cleveland resulted in a ring for his hometown which had witnessed a 52-year title drought across professional sports.
7) Petulant, egotistic man child
A man who has “The Chosen One” tattooed across his back can perhaps be suspected of having an ego. LeBron has been known to refer to himself in the third person and bemoan the fact that he can’t clone himself to replace his teammates. For Christ’s sake, his birthday cake looks like the British royal lineage had a baby with a barbershop pole.
When LeBron got dunked on by Jordan Crawford during his own camp, he stepped aside and asked Nike representatives to confiscate the tape. Stars have got served by lesser players without going after the recordings, not this time.
Granted, most of the legends in the league had an ego. They had to in order to dominate on the court. What rubs some people the wrong way is that LeBron’s ego is tinged with petulance as well.
Another evidence of his petulance can be seen here in a tweet expressing his sentiment when the Cavaliers got thrashed 112-57 by the Lakers:
He was referring to the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert calling his move to the Heat a “cowardly betrayal” in Comic Sans font. Then again, when he decided to leave the Cavaliers, his well thought out statement was: “I’m taking my talents to South Beach.”
There are many words to describe LeBron, humble isn’t one of them.
8) Crampgate
The Crying LeBron face is second perhaps only to the Crying Jordan face in expressing anguish. That is excellent company to be in, but there’s no question that LeBron has had moments when his toughness has been in question.
It is worth mentioning that LeBron has had a gruelling marathon of years. He plays through the regular season, makes the Finals and when needed he plays for Team USA in the offseason. His physical style of play does him no favours in maintaining his health either.
That being said, he’s been accused of being soft on occasion, as when he got a case of the cramps in Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals against the Spurs and had to be carried off.
When Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles, he limped over to the free throw line to hit two shots which allowed the Lakers to win and make it to the playoffs. LeBron needed to be carried off for cramps.
Here’s the thing, though, cramps can be devastating to move through. It isn’t like a bloody face which a Hockey player can grin through, this injury severely restricts mobility.
As Dwyane Wade put it: "From the outside, 'oh, it's a cramp. Can't play through a cramp?' But until you walk into -- until you’re in that situation and you're in someone else's moccasins, you don't know what somebody else's body is going through. If a player like LeBron James coming out of the ballgame, [up] two, then it's serious. It's not nothing to be joked about."
Even a sports drink company which specialises in hydrating athletes wasn’t above taking a shot at him. What is often lost in the annals of history is that even Michael Jordan had to exit a NBA Finals match against the Utah Jazz due to cramps before his Flu Game. The Bulls lost that one.
9) LeBron James, CEO, owner, supreme leader
Michael Jordan didn’t have Carte Blanche with the Bulls, in fact, his relationship with Bulls GM Jerry Krause was contentious to say the very least. Jordan remains close friends with former teammate Charles Oakley to this day. Oakley was traded by the Bulls in a move which riled Jordan up big time. Although he later acknowledged his replacement Bill Cartwright’s contribution saying, "I loved having Charles on the team, but Bill made the difference."
The Cleveland Cavaliers would never, ever make a move without LeBron’s say so because for all intents and purposes LeBron has run the organisation like a player/coach/GM/owner along with his homeboys Rich Paul, Maverick Carter and Randy Mims.
It is rumoured that LeBron wanted Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra fired after four years with the Heat. Heat President and all-round hard-headed former coach Pat Riley refused. This was seen as pivotal in LeBron’s decision to leave the Heat for an organisation which let him have the run of the house and fire David Blatt late in the season in a move scorned by many coaches.
The Cavaliers had given LeBron’s friends unprecedented access which is granted only to employees. When LeBron came to Cleveland while playing for the Heat, his entourage was declined access to the underground garage. He was used to having his way in every matter but Cleveland were not having any of it this time.
10) Hides behind superteams in the East
The Western Conference has been a bloody gauntlet over the last decade. Making it to the Conference Finals is seen as a major accomplishment for a team. Contrast that with the East, where the Conference Finalists consist of whichever team LeBron is on at the time and some other team.
While the Western Conference team arrives to the NBA Finals hobbled and fatigued, LeBron’s team usually has a much easier ride. Kobe is seen as a battle-tested veteran while LeBron is seen as someone who just plays for the one 7 game series.
Having said that, given the opportunity, anyone would choose the easier conference to play in seeing as how small things can derail championship hopes. The West has some perennial powerhouses in the Spurs, Warriors, Thunder, Clippers and the Rockets. That doesn't make the 48-minute grind of the Eastern Conference any less bloody.
In sports, loathing the opponent is something of a national pastime. A lot of the reasons that LeBron James is hated makes for good drama and entertainment. These reasons, some of them valid in their own right, can inspire derision and scorn.
Outright hatred is something one ought to reserve for tyrants and miscreants who seek to do us harm. All LeBron seeks to do is win games and have a good time while doing it. Feel free to ridicule the guy, hating seems unwarranted though.
Guess the Lakers players!
