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.
