is it okay to hate lebron james?

[chris]

a season ago lebron james was a member of the cleveland cavaliers. he was being touted as perhaps one of the best players ever. when the season ended in disappointment for the cavs, free agency started. an entire city waited on what lebron was going to say, on where he was going to go. he didn't owe cleveland a thing. he was paid for his services. handsomely. but as a local kid, he was born in akron, ohio, he was the real hometown hero. an entire city, cleveland (whose economic situation was dire, whose sports teams had never really won anything) badly needed a hero and reason for hope. and they had that in lebron james.

in conjunction with espn, lebron decided to make his announcement as to where he was going to sign in free agency with. it was to be a one hour televised special. fans throughout the country were horrified by the selfishness of the debacle. but fans tuned in. i know i did. when he made his announcement to take his talents to south beach, cavalier fans couldn't believe it while heat fans partied. i personally have no qualms about where lebron decided to play. it was his choice. and who amoung us would not take the chance to choose to work wherever in the world they wanted to? but then there was the celebration. the coming out party. it was a championship celebration, really. players and fans. promises of not 6, not 7...but 8 championships the heat will bring to miami. all before they played a single game.

here they are in the nba finals. in my opinion, they do not have much of a team. they do, however, have two all world players in james and wade. and another all-star in bosh. i have always been of the opinion that you need a team to win a championship. and that very well may be the case. usually. but it never hurts to have the three best players ons the court wearing the same jersey.

but how good a player is lebron james, really? he is as physically gifted as perhaps any player currently playing any professional sports. but is he a great basketball player? that is...does he possess great basketball skills? he is a good ball handler, especially for his size. and he is a good outside shot for a guy his size. but he has no real inside game. and he is below average at the free throw line. and it is that last stat that stands out for me. is he willing to develop his game. will he strive to get better. will he work for hours on end, day after day in the gym to be the best? he has shown to miss big shots when the game is on the line.

and he is is so loved by the networks. i won't blame them for that. they are in a position to create stars. and they have one in james. but is he a great basketball player? is he even the best basketball player on his team? pound for pound i'd suggest that dwayne wade has more pure basketball skills than lebron. better inside game. better outside shot, better ball handling skills. and much more clutch when the game is on the line. and every bit as good defensively.

it has been debated that he is the best basketball player on the planet. maybe even the best ever. but can a player who has never won a championship ring (and this very well may change this very year) be the best. can a player who has recieved all the accolades and praise lebron has recieved since, well...he was drafted out of high school...really be the best? is he? if if he soaks up this praise given to him from networks, local fans, and sports announcers without really deserving it, does that make him an unlikable star?

[mervap]

Personally, I thought the one hour "special" was extremely distasteful. No matter what his decision, there were going to be dissapointed fans...to make a spectacle out of that was unseemly.

[Greg]

I've followed sports my whole life, and I think he is a very polarizing figure.  That tv 'Special' will never be lived down and is probably considered one of the most embarrassing off-the-field moments in memory.  I don't think a team was put together like this one before either.  Other NBA great teams always involved a trade of some kind.  It wasn't just guys texting each other to all go on the same team. 

I am from an era of Muhammad Ali, Bobby Orr, and others.  Ali, a flawed human, stood for peace and human rights.  Orr refused money from a guaranteed contract because he was injured.  Where I am off-base and biased is that I like when athletes stand for something.  I don't mean the tax write-off for a million dollar donation for this or that. 

James is a great, great basketball player and an unusual player because of the combination of his size and agility.

He said he grew up liking the Yankees, Bulls, and Cowboys.  In other words he was one of those people who just looked around and jumped on the bandwagon of the team who was successful.  Again though, what's wrong with liking whom you like?

He said changed his number because of his respect for t-shirt and shoe salesman Michael Jordan.  He changed it to 6, the number of a guy who won 11 championships and spoke out for civil rights in the 60's.

All in all though, he made the right decision to leave Cleveland.  He is an amazing player who wasn't going to win in Cleveland. 

[lampie1970]

first off, let me say, i do not watch basketball. lol. I have been to some Orlando Magic games live, and those i find fun. But on television it drives me nuts. I recently got reaquainted with a friend from high school (gotta love facebook...) that LOVES the Miami Heat. So, especially right now, all our conversations are peppered with the goings on.

I thought about the whole James thing leaving Cleveland. Does anyone fault anyone else for changing jobs when it could be a "step up"? no, we dont. We say: congratulations! and do what you gotta do! and you needed to move on/change of scenery all the time to one another. Why not sports stars? we mix it up, why not them?

Also, one other uneducated opinion, since basketball is a team sport, i dont think you can determine if someone is the best individual player based on team stats. How many championships etc. He may be a great player, but he is not the only one on the court. In some facets of the game, there has to be a good stable of players on a team in order for them as individuals to excel too.

[chris]

lampie, you're exactly right. if you put two or three guys in a room together, they will invariably start talking sports. it's a common link us cavemen have. we (us guys, anyway) have discussed who is the best athlete for all sorts of sports since the dawn of time. but there is rarely a right answer. often, we are just telling you who our favorite is (with just a dash of hometown bias, usually). it's like saying who is best looking, who is the best actor...it is always subjective. but that little bit of logic will hardly prevent us from stating who we think is best.

 

[Greg]

Sometimes nice guys finish first.  Dallas was a class act, a team with heart, the underdog, the definition of team, the champions.