Back in 2001 I was reading an issue of Slam
Magazine and I was looking through the names on their annual Slam High School
All-Americans list. I noticed there was a sophomore on the second team,
and I was like DAMN that's kinda crazy. The name was Lebron James
from St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio. There was a nice article on him
an issue or two later and soon after that the hype surrounding him spread to
the main stream. His high school played games in a college arena and a
few of his games were shown on ESPN. As soon as I saw him play I knew he was
the real deal! He already had an NBA body at age 17 and
his athleticism was out of this world. He could fly! and his
passing skills blew me away for someone of his size. I was a big Lebron
fan back then, even had a poster of him up there next to Kobe and MJ.
I was all about Lebron until maybe his second
year in the league. It's really kinda funny to me the way that I started
to dislike him, because at the beginning it really wasn't his fault. In
my opinion, Kobe was the best player in the NBA starting somewhere around 2001.
You have no idea how many times I had to hear that players like Tracy
McGrady and Allen Iverson were better. It was such a joke! Bryant had to be the
best there was for literally 7 years before people would
actually acknowledge that it was true! Now Lebron on the other
hand was seemingly anointed "King" almost the second that
he stepped on to the floor! For whatever reason Kobe had to do so much to
get credit, and then Lebron marches in and overnight he's the best? Really?
I've never ever ever denied that Lebron could one day go down as the
greatest player of all time, but I'm not gonna give him the crown based on his
potential! I'm sorry! So it was really seeing him get all of the credit and
glorification before he's actually put in the work that kinda started my Lebron
hatred up to begin with. It started more as a hatred of the people that
put him up on the pedestal before he deserved it, more than anything!
Luckily for me, he has gone on to do more than enough to justify my
disliking of him.
The funny thing is I really don't blame him for
getting swept by the Spurs the first time he made it to the finals. The
East was sooooo pitiful that year I truly believe that if the Lakers, who were
the 7th seed in the west, had made it to the finals they would have even beat
the Cavs. The West was loaded with teams, while the East was just a joke!
In most years that Cavs team would have maybe only made the second round, so I
don't blame him. That team really had no business being in the finals to
begin with.
Now fast forward to Lebron's last couple of
years in Cleveland. The Cavs went out and had the best record in the NBA
two years in a row. I couldn't believe the people that thought that those
Cavs teams would stand a chance in the playoffs! They won a lot of games in the
East during the regular season, but that doesn't mean that they get the rings
automatically! I'll never forget when Lebron and company were pretending to
hold the championship trophy during a mock photo shoot during the pregame of an
early round playoff series. Really? You haven't even won a single championship
and you're gonna act like you have it in the bag? How great was it to see them
get bounced by the Magic!!!! They beat up on subpar teams? Why anyone expected
that to really mean something is beyond me. Then, the following season
they lose to the Celtics. Lebron gave up on that series even before I
thought they were out of it. It was unbelievable! I swear he had already
decided to leave the Cavs and just gave up, so as to justify his decision.
After the Cavs got eliminated I was just dying to see what Lebron says in
the post game press conference, oh but of course he just skipped it. I just
didn't understand it at all, I couldn't have written a better script.
Then comes "The Decision," in which
Lebron makes a television event out of his decision to go to the Miami Heat.
He didn't even say he was heading to play for Miami, he said he was
taking his talents to South Beach, I think there's definitely something to be
said about that. Just like Shaq, I think Lebron is more about the
celebrity and the fame than he is about the basketball. He just plays
bball for the $$$ and the fame, everything else is just an added bonus.
Going to Miami just seemed to be such a cop out. It's like he just
wanted to create this big news story and has no problem with the fact that he
may not be the man on the team. Just look at the picture I posted of Magic,
MJ, and Bird all wearing Heat uniforms. How wrong would that have been?
Lebron should want to beat those guys, not play with them! Then the
Heat storm to the finals, and what does Lebron do? He disappears! It's not even
that he played bad, there were a couple of games that almost seemed like he
wasn't even there. How can Lebron score 8 points in a finals game? It
makes no sense! He could just take the ball straight to the rim every time down
court. Watching him play actually frustrates me! I wish I had all of that
god-given ability! I'm convinced that it's reached a point where he doesn't
want people to see him give 100% and fail. He'd rather give 75% (and
still be one of the best in the NBA) and just see what happens. That way
if he fails, he can just act like he really didn't give it his all! I
just feel like Lebron was blessed with freakish body and ridiculous abilities,
and that if he didn't have those things he would be working at McDonalds.
Kobe on the other hand, I think would be in the NBA if he was 6'1”,
that's how hard he works and how determined he is to succeed! That's
about all for now, I could rant about Lebron forever! At the end of the day I
do think that Lebron has the talent to go down as the greatest NBA player of
all time, but he's not there yet, and I doubt more and more whether he even
cares to chase MJ, and honestly, I think that's sad.......
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