Lebron James is one of the most unfairly hated athletes in history.
I would say that while Kobe has many haters, there are still way more fans than haters, judging from the amount of Kobe worship on social media. Basically any time is Kobe is not brought up in any conversation, their fans will say ‘the disrespect to Kobe! but what about Kobe! Did y’all forget about the Mamba!???’ etc so while Kobe is polarizing, I would say he’s still a net positive athlete in his image. His tragic death (RIP) just reflected how idolized he was around the world. Kobe’s positive traits (his 5 rings, scoring accolades, “mamba mentality”, work ethic) tends to be much more well remembered than his negative ones (most missed shots all time, not the easiest teammate to get along with, missing the playoffs in his prime, losing a series while up 3–1 etc).
Another example of how much more net positive Kobe is viewed than Lebron is seen in the fact that Lebron gets blamed for not meeting Kobe in the Finals – because he lost in 2009 to the Orlando Magic – despite that team being completely carried by Lebron and nowhere near a Finals caliber team. Whereas Kobe gets absolutely no blame for getting swept in 2011 to the same Dallas Mavs team – and FYI guarded by Jason Terry (who actually guarded Kobe, not Lebron since he’s an SG) – that people criticized Lebron for losing to in 6 games. Kobe could have met Lebron in the Finals that year – and he was the defending champ that year – and no one ever brings this up but brings up Lebron’s 2009 loss to the Magic.
Lebron on the other hand – seems to have more haters than idols. I’m in several basketball social media groups, I’m active on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc and let me tell you the amount of people that hate on him is just ridiculous. There’s literally people on social media who dedicate each and every day to making some kind of hate meme or post about him. Then they will call anyone who defends Lebron a ‘bronsexual’ which is both immature and childish. And it’s always about the exact same reasons too, “Lebron joined a superteam” “Lebron needed help to win” “Lebron is soft, whines and is a crybaby” “Lebron is 3–6 in the Finals and is the biggest loser ever” “Lebron choked in the 2011 Finals” etc like a broken record.
Contrary to Kobe, these people focus on Lebron’s negative traits and never his positive ones, never ever praise him when he wins, and always blames him when he loses. When Lebron wins, it’s always his teammates carrying him. When Lebron loses, it’s always his fault. For Kobe, it’s the opposite – whenever he wins, it’s all Kobe and his mamba mentality doing the work. Whenever he loses, it’s because his teammates didn’t step up or were crap (Smush Parker and Kwame Brown always get brought up despite the fact that Lamar Odom was a pretty good player as well).
Also, people always hate on Lebron for only scoring 8 pts in a Finals game in 2011, well there’s lots of other greats who have similar bad performances in the Finals that never get brought up. Kareem got demolished by Moses Malone in 1983 Finals, Magic turned into ‘Tragic’ in the 1984 Finals, Bird had only 8 points in game 3 of the 1981 Finals, Kobe only had 8 points in game 5 of the 2000 Finals and also shot 38% in the 2004 Finals and shot 6 for 24 in the 2010 Finals game 7, Wilt had perennially choking performances in the playoffs and Finals, Duncan missed that potential game winning layup in the 2013 Finals etc in fact out of the top 10 players in NBA history only Russell and Jordan could be considered ‘truly’ clutch as they had next to no bad performances in the Finals.
Heck the Finals record as a measuring stick, came into being because of Lebron. Prior to 2014, no one on social media ever talked about Finals record for any other player. Not Kareem, not Magic, not Bird. But because of Lebron, now they start talking about Finals records – the reason being that they can take an accomplishment that is uniquely Lebron’s – going to more Finals than any other player in recent history – and turn it into a negative. And it’s one that Lebron can never win, because his teams were always outmatched in the Finals, and his own teams always overachieved, it’s a way the haters can turn something that would be celebrated for any other player (for example, Iverson’s lone Finals appearance is considered the crowning achievement of his career despite him losing), and turn it into a point to criticize. It’s also implying that losing before the Finals would actually be better in order to preserve the Finals record – but that idea is blatantly ridiculous, as anyone who has played sports knows. You play to win and in order to win you have to reach the Finals. Only one team can win, so there’s of course a chance to lose. But to focus on Finals records implies that missing the playoffs would actually be better. That makes no sense.
There’s literally nothing Lebron can do to better his image with these haters. If Lebron himself didn’t do well, then it’s because he choked and lacked ‘killer instinct’. If Lebron’s teammates didn’t do well, it’s because Lebron is a toxic teammate and didn’t make them better. If Lebron does well, it’s because he flopped and referees favored him and he ‘stat padded’. If his teammates do well, it’s because Lebron needed to form a ‘superteam’ to win and they ‘saved his legacy’. It’s a lose-lose situation whatever Lebron does.
Why do so many people on social media spend their every waking moment to hate on him? If I had to guess there’s a few reasons:
-Lebron gets too much media attention, and people get annoyed by that
-Lebron’s too successful, and that makes people envious of him
-They don’t like Lebron’s fanbase and thus they don’t like Lebron either for creating that fanbase
-Lebron is threatening their favorite idol (usually Jordan or Kobe) and they don’t like that Lebron has a chance or is currently surpassing their idol’s legacy
-Lebron habitually beat their favorite teams (usually the Raptors or Celtics but pretty much any team since Lebron has a winning record against almost every team)
-Lebron is too political
-They blame Lebron for all of the modern NBA’s problems like flopping and superteams
-Recency bias. Lebron is fresh in people’s memories, and whatever he does on the court (or even off the court – I even read some posts where people blamed Lebron for Nike’s sweatshops, said he was a communist sympathizer and letting his son smoke weed which is ridiculous) is scrutinized unlike any other player before. Jordan played in an era without social media, and Kobe’s era was when social media was just starting. They never had the microscope of billions of users like Lebron does.
I can’t explain any other reason why these people would spend so much time to make hate memes and posts every day, it’s not like Lebron ever did anything to them personally or anything, and perhaps it’s proof of how successful Lebron is that he has so many haters. For example nobody hates on John Paxson or Kyle Korver – because they are not superstars. Only successful athletes become hated.
I firmly believe this. Wilt was hated in his day for playing selfishly, Magic was called “Tragic Johnson” for his choking the 1984 Finals, Jordan was also criticized for being a ball hog in his pre championship days and even the now much beloved Kobe was once hated for his ball hogging, rape case trial and failing to win without Shaq.
But nothing compares to Lebron. No matter what social media platform I use – reddit, twitter, facebook, youtube, even Quora, his haters are everywhere and they are the majority.
I’m not a Bron fan – my favorite players are Magic, West and Barry in that order – but I end usually defending Lebron because the hate against him is just irrational and ridiculous. One guy even told me Lebron “ruined the game I love” because he erroneously blamed Lebron for superteams and flopping now that’s just ridiculous.
I’m going to go over all the so called ‘hater’ arguments and debunk all of them as I usually do. Because every hater argument is pretty illogical and irrational and easy to debunk because they usually either don’t watch full basketball games or lack knowledge of NBA history or both.
- “I hate Lebron because of his bronsexual fanbase who think he’s the GOAT”
First off, I hate the term “Bronsexual” like how childish do you have to be to use a term like that? Secondly, what’s wrong with being a fan of one of the greatest players of all time? How’s it different than the legion of Jordan fans and Kobe fans? Is it because “Bronsexuals” proclaim Lebron as the GOAT? and hype him up? Nothing wrong with that, it’s their opinion they are allowed to say that and it’s also no different than Jordan and Kobe fans. Especially Kobe fans because Kobe has almost no legit argument to be the GOAT at all since Jordan you know, plays the same position and is superior in every way, and yet Kobe’s fanbase keeps hyping him up with the 81 point game, all the buzzwords like ‘cold blooded assassin’ ‘mamba mentality’ etc and the worship has only increased after his tragic death. So what’s wrong with Lebron’s fanbase saying the same thing?
It’s a dumb double standard that exists for Lebron and his fanbase. If Jordan/Kobe brag about themselves or act arrogant in any way, then his fanbase eats it up. If Lebron does that, then he gets criticized by everyone. If Jordan/Kobe’s fanbase hypes them up or calls them the GOAT its fine, but if Lebron’s fanbase does it, then it’s not ok and deserve to be hated. It’s a ridiculous double standard.
Oh and BTW here’s footage of Kobe calling himself the GOAT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jevTu8qqgyQ
.. and absolutely no one cared when Kobe said it. Muhammed Ali called himself the GOAT and everyone believed in it. When Lebron said it in the heat of the moment after beating a 73 win team after coming back from 3–1 down to win his city their first championship in 50 years, people lost their minds.
- “I hate Lebron because he’s not loyal and he jumps teams and recruits other stars to play with him”
First of all, how is Lebron not loyal? Let’s actually go over what happened. Lebron signed a rookie contract with Cleveland. He renewed that contract with Cleveland despite the Cavs and Dan Gilbert giving him almost nothing to work with for 7 seasons. He took a Cavs team with Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic and Eric Snow to the Finals as a 22 year old. He never asked to be traded at any time despite this very weak supporting cast. And he never got a great coach either. He put up with this for 7 seasons before he was eligible for free agency. That 7 year run with Cleveland is already good enough to get his number retired with the team. Remember – Kobe couldn’t even put up with his bad team for even 3 seasons and was constantly asking to be traded in 2007–2008 until the Lakers gave him Pau Gasol.
Then he went to the Miami Heat and teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The majority of Lebron hate has come after 2010 because of “The Decision”. This basically ruined Lebron’s good will with the wider fanbase. But let’s take this into perspective; superteams are not a new thing. They’ve been around since the 1960s. Wilt/West/Baylor Lakers was a superteam. Showtime Lakers and Bird Celtics were a superteam. Moses Malone/Dr J 76ers was a superteam. These teams were so stacked they had hall of famers like Bill Walton, Bob McAdoo and Bobby Jones coming off the bench. Then you got superteams like the 1997 Rockets, 2004 Lakers, 2008 Celtics – all before Lebron’s Big 3 Heat.
“But they built their teams through the draft” – Nope not the 1969 Lakers or 1983 76ers or 2008 Celtics those superteams were formed through trades. So what’s the difference between a superteam formed through trades versus a superteam formed through free agency? The only difference is free agency is of the player’s will and through trades is of the GM’s will. Either way the front office has to sign these players all together in the end. So what I get from this is fans don’t want players to win rings through their own decisions, but through forced decision making. Basically they want the players to suffer to win. Which is such a weird thing to me. In what other sport would the fans prefer the players to suffer than to make their own decisions?
Also, Lebron can only ‘recruit’ other players if they want to play with him and presumably take a paycut. It’s not easy to build a team with good chemistry and Lebron’s only been able to do this so many times because everyone knows he’s a great teammate and he elevates everyone around him. That’s why Lebron is able to do this so easily. And superteams don’t guarantee a win for the same reason that all the stars have to play unselfishly and get along well. Lebron is unique in this aspect that regardless of the coach, system or even chemistry (Kyrie and Love were not a good fit chemistry wise for Lebron), he can still get a championship – which he has done for over 40 players. That’s why superteams like the 2004 Lakers, 2013 Lakers and 2020 Clippers all failed is because they didn’t have the team chemistry and Lebron’s unique floor raising abilities. We have yet to see how well the 2021 Nets do – they have as much firepower as the 2017 Warriors on paper but they lack the Warrior’s cohesiveness and defensive abilities.
And finally of course, Lebron came back to Cleveland to lead them to four straight Finals and the championship – their first ever in franchise history. Lebron is Cleveland’s all time leader in every category, led them to every Finals in their history and their only championship. The man has done more than enough to be loyal to his franchise.
- “I hate Lebron because he flops and is a crybaby”
Everyone flops in the modern NBA from James Harden to Luka Doncic. It’s to take advantage of the rules to get extra points. Every great player utilizes their era specific advantages. Lebron is no different. When you have a chance to get free points, you do it. Of course if Lebron was transported back to the 80s and 90s then he wouldn’t do it, cause the defensive rules were tougher back then. Some fans actually think Lebron – a player with the body of Karl Malone and the speed of Magic Johnson – actually would not survive back then because he’s ‘soft’. This is ridiculous. Lebron is obviously taking advantage of modern day rules, has nothing to do with him being soft. You really think that if you walk up to Lebron on the street and poke him, he’s gonna start crying? get real. And I hate that ‘crybaby meme’ and ‘butterfly meme’ that haters always post on non-related posts. It’s stupid, childish, immature, doesn’t mean anything, and yet always gets the most upvotes. Not just that but they use terms like “Bronsexual” ‘Lebum’ ‘LeChoke’ ‘LeFrozen’ etc it just reinforces the perception that these haters are immature 10 year olds bragging to each other about how funny they are. They are idiots. No better than Trump supporters in my opinion, who also use name calling and memeable gifs to make their arguments instead of any rational evidence for their arguments.
And the rest of the hater arguments are all either false or irrational.
“Lebron is not clutch and is too afraid to take the last shot”
Then watch these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soXYntMDQec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiqspGnVC3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=141kuDfxLtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYBmbqL9oE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiCa4sKM7-w
The problem is whenever Lebron has a good game, his haters are always silent, and whenever he passes the ball (i.e makes the right basketball play) and his teammate misses (i.e Danny Green in the 2020 Finals) then social media is flooded with his haters talking about Lebron choked, is trash, has no ‘killer instinct’ etc. Since his haters outnumber his fans, his haters always end up winning the popular opinion unfortunately.
“Lebron isn’t a good defender”
Also false. Take a look at these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYedgu-va3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FhqTVeL7_4
Backpicks GOAT: #3 LeBron James – as well as this great article by Ben Taylor, also known as Thinking Basketball who is a basketball author, popular Youtuber, statistician, sports journalist and watched every NBA game from the Hardwood classics to present day. He presents all the evidence – footage + analytics – that back up Lebron being a great defender.
The thing is even though Lebron is a great defender, he is almost never mentioned in the ‘greatest defenders’ discussion and if you mention him then you will be ostracized by people online. But people will put Kobe in the ‘elite defenders’ convo despite the fact that Kobe was always in the bottom half of DAPM in the league – especially after 2003 – and opposing guards would routinely get their career games on him like Gilbert Arenas, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Steve Francis and even Jeremy Lin.
Same thing with Lebron’s scoring – despite averaging 27 PPG – good for top 6 all time – and being top 3 in total points in NBA history – he is also never mentioned in the ‘greatest scorers’ discussion either. However guys like Kobe, Iverson, Harden etc are inevitably all mentioned. It’s baffling to me. How can you be top 3 in total points and top 6 in PPG and not be mentioned in the greatest scorers convo?
“Lebron dropped the ball in 2009 to meet Kobe in the Finals”
First of all, Lebron’s 2009 team was not that good. Yes I know they won 66 games, but regular season win has little co-relation with the playoffs – the Derrick Rose Bulls, Giannis Bucks and the 2015 Atlanta Hawks should tell you that.
And Lebron did as well as anyone could in 2009.
2009 NBA Eastern Conference Finals – Magic vs. Cavaliers | Basketball-Reference.com
Lebron averaged a ridiculous 38/8/8 in that series against the Magic. What else was he supposed to do? Including a buzzer beater! (video below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkvTLOhm-TQ
So no Lebron did not drop the ball to meet Kobe.
I think on the other hand rather – it’s Kobe that dropped the ball to meet Lebron in the 2011 Finals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc7HIudwY14
^ Jason Terry averaged an astounding 75% TS% and 65% FG% against Kobe in the 2011 Western Conference semi-finals. Kobe was 1st team All-NBA and 1st team All-Def so I don’t want to hear any excuses for him not being in his prime.
So Lebron averaging 38/8/8 against the 2009 Magic and Kobe getting swept by the 2011 Mavs averaging 22/3/3 against them – who’s the one that dropped the ball here?
“Lebron got outplayed by Jason Terry and JJ Barea in the 2011 Finals”
This is also not true.
2011 NBA Finals – Mavericks vs. Heat | Basketball-Reference.com
Lebron averaged 18/7/7 on 48% shooting in the Finals and Jason Terry averaged 18/3/3 on 49% shooting in the Finals. Terry did not outplay Lebron, this is clearly a false claim that the haters love to make. and JJ Barea averaging 9/2/3 on 38% shooting outplayed Lebron? yeah right.
And I even made a reddit post about this Debunking the myth: Lebron did not get outplayed by Jason Terry or JJ Barea in 2011 Finals
Which got downvoted immediately by haters. All the comments said that the statistics were wrong or deceiving and comments like ‘you didn’t watch the game’ etc flowed in. Somebody show me the footage where Terry and Barea so called ‘destroyed’ Lebron in the Finals. Also the haters act like Jason Terry was some scrub when he was a deadly offensive dynamo in the playoffs who was easily the Mavs second best scorer after Dirk – he scored 18k points in his career. But the haters have to add that he ‘came off the bench’ in order to make it look more embarrassing for Lebron.
Again, Lebron did not get outplayed that Finals. Any player averaging 18/7/7 on 49% shooting in the Finals is having a pretty decent game. It’s just the standards for Lebron is so ridiculously high for him. Rip Hamilton outscored Kobe in the 2004 Finals. Andrew Toney outscored Magic Johnson in the 1983 Finals. Larry Bird had 8 points in the 1981 Finals Game 3. Jalen Rose outscored Kobe by a whopping 8 PPG in 2000 Finals and shot 10% better too. None of these guys get criticized eternally for one below average series like Lebron did.
And at any one time any ‘lesser’ player can get hot and outplay a superstar. It happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m3Ab7UzetA
^ Here’s Muggsy Bogues defending Jordan really well – freaking Muggsey Bogues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbApp17M1RY
^ here’s Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley just destroying Kobe’s Lakers in 2003.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arC8vRMfWTQ
^ Here’s Shawn Kemp outplaying Jordan in the 1996 Finals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WW4Ot9Qqb8
^ Here’s Bonzi Wells outplaying Kobe + the Lakers
It happens. Sometimes ‘lesser players’ do above average and superstars do below average. But point is, the superstars will perform above average most of the time and that’s why they are superstars. Hating on Lebron just for one Finals performance where Jason Terry averaged the same PPG as him out of 10 different Finals is just ridiculous.
“Lebron trades his teammates”
There’s yet another term for Lebron here “LeGM” and even media outlets themselves are quick to post any stories involving potential trades to and from Lebron’s team. The truth is ANY franchise superstar has a lot of power over the front office. Although Lebron is not officially the GM, he has strong influence over the front office’s decisions. Organizations naturally want to keep their superstar happy. You think the Bulls or Lakers would refuse MJ or Kobe’s request if they wanted a guy off the team? Kobe literally told Jeremy Lin, Carlos Boozer, Jordan Hill etc that they were gonna get traded when he walked into the locker room. And it’s happened in the past with many other stars. Magic Johnson wanted Norm Nixon off the team – he was gone. Isiah Thomas wanted Adrian Dantley off the team and his buddy Mark Aguirre on it – done. Kobe was a huge factor in Eddie Jones, Dwight Howard and Shaq being traded, etc. So this another one of those things where haters turn a blind eye to everyone else and only blame Lebron.
“Lebron got a Mickey Mouse ring in 2020”
Another stupid argument. What does that even mean? First of all the 2020 Lakers believe it or not actually had a harder time winning a ring than other teams. Why? Because they literally missed home court advantage which they would have had for the entire playoffs. They were also without the services of Avery Bradley who was a pretty good defender for the team. In addition, being in the bubble is mentally draining. Ask anyone who played in that bubble. Didn’t Paul George become “Pandemic P” in that bubble due to the mental drain?
So the whole Mickey Mouse thing is stupid. It’s a real championship. Every player competed for it. The Clippers choked a 3–1 lead trying to win that mickey mouse ring. Giannis choked trying to win that mickey mouse ring. The Lakers beat the Blazers, Rockets and Nuggets in the playoffs – those teams were not pushovers. So the thought that the ring was ‘easy for the Lakers’ is totally BS.
You know what else could be considered “Mickey Mouse” rings though? How about KD’s two rings when he joined a 73 win team? Those rings seemed pretty easy to get. How about the ring that the NBA gave Shaq and Kobe in 2002 over the Kings? That could be considered mickey mouse ring too.
“Lebron is too political”
I dunno, so is Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and they never get hate for it. What’s more you have guys like Bird who was a deadbeat dad, guys like Kobe and Jordan who cheated on their wife (Kobe possibly even raped someone) and they never get a fraction of the hate that Lebron does – who’s never had an off court scandal before.
It’s interesting because Muhammed Ali is widely considered the GOAT of boxing and he was known for being political and praised for it. Same for basketball legends Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Last I checked they were quite political and vocal all their life. But nobody hates on them for being political. Once Lebron speaks up, then everyone hates on him. And they also blame Lebron for Nike’s sweatshops (which is a Nike problem and has nothing to do with Lebron) and call him a communist sympathizer (the NBA decided to bend to China’s rules, so ask Adam Silver, Lebron has little control over it).
Also the media jumps on whatever negative information they can find about Lebron. Anything negative said about Lebron by ANYONE – his teammates, former teammates, other players, analysts, heck even celebrities like Ice Cube – it gets posted all over social media. Meanwhile you will never hear any negative stories about retired players like Bird, Kobe, Magic, Jordan etc
https://nba.nbcsports.com/2021/12/05/even-on-off-night-stephen-curry-drains-new-tunnel-shot-puts-on-shooting-show/
^ Curry has a bad night but no one cares and everyone is like oh its ok he’ll bounce back.
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/nba/grizzlies/2021/12/30/memphis-grizzlies-battle-lebron-james-and-los-angeles-lakers/9035567002/
^ Lebron has a great game putting up 35/9/7 but since he loses haters will say stuff like this
Stat padding?? ok buddy, so when Kobe shoots 50 times thats not stat padding or whenever Curry puts up great numbers they are not? But when Lebron does it then it is? And how convenient that he cherry picks one game whereas in every other game you can easily see without Lebron the team just falls apart and loses to the worst teams in the league.
This one goes back to the ‘only Lebron can be a GM’ argument and he’s been on 3 different teams total in his career, and each time he’s won that team a ring within 2 seasons of being there. ‘underperforms’ is an exaggeration, considering he’s only missed the playoffs twice in his career – once in his rookie season and once in 2019 when he was injured.
^ These people have short memories. Didn’t Kobe miss the playoffs in his prime in 2005? Didn’t he lose in the first round twice in 2006 and 2007 in his prime? Wasn’t his career after 2010 a total disappointment? These people act like Kobe was winning his entire career.
https://hoopshype.com/2022/01/08/al-harrington-lebron-james-has-dominated-an-era-of-his-little-bros/
^ Like I said whenever ANYONE says anything negative about Lebron it appears on the media. It’s as if he’s the only player anyone ever says anything negative about. It’s just that the media never reports anything bad about other players, but they know Bron has a lot of haters so they will report ANYTHING bad about Lebron.
^ When Lebron misses free throws in a game, it gets remembered forever.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/lebron-james-hits-clutch-shots-late-help-lakers-hold-off-kings/
When he scores 14 points in 4th quarter against the Kings just the month before, nobody remembers it.
^ The man can’t even think about a celebration because his team isn’t doing well? Wow. I guess we shouldn’t have retired Kobe’s jersey back in 2017 when the Lakers were doing terrible then too.
^ You have basketball pages that are called ‘Basketball Breakdown’ yet do very little breaking down of anything basketball related – instead they resort to posting Lebron flopping meme pics. See how childish and idiotic these are? Anyone can take a pic of Jordan and Kobe getting blocked too – it’s not like they never got blocked – and like I said earlier, flopping happens everywhere around the league.
LeBron James criticised for sharing COVID-19 meme on social media
He posts a covid meme (which maybe he just thought was funny) and the media immediately jumped on it and everyone from fans to haters to analysts to Kareem criticized him for it
Meanwhile Kyrie with his anti vax conspiracy theories gets praised by fans lol
Kyrie Irving’s Anti-vax Stance Has Earned Him a Cheering Section on the Right
How about when Kobe demanded a trade numerous times
https://clutchpoints.com/kobe-bryant-trade-offers-the-lakers-passed-on-despite-good-deals/
Or when Kobe tried to recruit Dirk
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2616533-kobe-bryant-reveals-he-once-tried-to-recruit-dirk-nowitzki-to-lakers
So haters would crucify Lebron for these things but Kobe gets a free pass? Lol
Oh yeah and remember how haters keep saying Lebron is soft and can’t play in the 80s and 90s? Well the ONE time Lebron acts physical, people call him a dirty player. lol
https://www.eurohoops.net/en/nba-news/1273805/lebron-james-ejected-after-flagrant-2-and-tussle-with-isaiah-stewart/
Remember when Kobe purposely injured Yao but no one remembers or cares about it?
https://daydaynews.cc/en/nba/609662.html
^ this is the dumb stuff people say. I already addressed why the whole ‘Lebron creates superteams / trades players’ narrative is false, and begs former MVP caliber players? Hmm.. Westbrook? What about Kobe getting Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Karl Malone, Gary Payton to play with him? And Pau Gasol underperforming before the Lakers? Note that 2005-2007 neither Gasol or Kobe made it past the first round. So its not like Kobe was doing any better! It’s more like they needed each other equally. Lebron on the other hand has won over 40+ players their first ring and going back to the superteams thing, it’s because everyone wants to play with him. Kobe if people remember, scared off all free agents because of his intense personality. I was reading all the media back in 2011-2013, people’s memories must be short. Kobe was scaring off free agents like Melo left and right. Kicked Dwight off the team (who later joined Lebron TWICE). It’s totally a false narrative that Kobe is a better teammate, nothing could be further from the truth.
Another example ^ all Lebron did was post an apology for Lakers fans and media twists it in a negative way saying he’s gonna trade someone.
^ when Lebron gets angry and curses then he’s a ’19 year old’ when MJ or Kobe says it then they are ‘cold blooded’
See how ridiculous this is?
Not to mention, Lebron is only superstar where if you try to back up your arguments with stats, footage and evidence against the prevailing (misinformed) opinions, you get called out for being a ‘fanboy’ or ‘bronsexual’. With other superstars people will respect you for posting facts, but when it comes to Lebron, it seems you cannot defend him or post anything positive about him without being ridiculed.
I hope I addressed all the ‘hater’ arguments but to me the hate for Lebron is unwarranted and none of the haters ever respond with any evidence. No footage, no stats, just memes and gifs and stuff like that which exposes how irrational their hate is.
See my response to some haters below:
