The fact that Lebron had to have a career game last night and the Cavs still squeaked out a W is scary, I'm worried.
I will never understand how people dislike Lebron. From his childhood, growing up in the projects of Akron, (Akron is no joke btw) to where he is now is an amazing story. Guy has been in the spotlight since he was 16 and never had a major scandal.
But oh well, some people just don't like greatness. I get it, I guess.
He badly mismanaged "The Decision" fiasco, as evidenced by the fact that Nike wanted nothing to do with it, and they never met a marketing opportunity they didn't like. It wasn't what he decided, but how he went about it, that rubbed some people the wrong way.
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For me, LBJ is guilty of one of the worst (non criminal) things a person can be guilty of: Hypocrisy. In his first run at Cleveland, he was the de facto GM. He made all the personnel decisions, or was at least given an absolute veto right over all major decisions. This was an open secret in the NBA. But he never owned up to that. When things went well, LBJ took all the credit, but deflected all the blame when things went badly. Yes, some of the Cleveland rosters were talent deficient, but each one was of LBJ's making. A prime reason why he left Miami was that he tried to take a lead role in personnel decisions, and Riley essentially told him to shut up, show up, and suit up. Basically, LBJ's only duty was to play ball, not help run the team. LBJ didn't like that, so he went back to Cleveland and the only franchise desperate enough to turn control over to LBJ. There were other desperate teams, but those teams' ownership groups wouldn't hand over complete control of the franchise.
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And LBJ went right back to making bad decisions wrt roster composition. He's trying to thread a needle wherein LBJ has enough help to win a title, but not so much help that LBJ isn't widely acknowledged to have done most of the real work himself. He's thrilled to have won that title in Cleveland, but you know that Kyrie making that clutch 3 late, instead of LBJ, rankles. Thus, you had a roster of overpaid cronies and favorites of LBJ, which restricted their ability to spend of FAs. FAs will take a pay cut to play with a contender, but not a huge pay cut. Further, as I said, LBJ was unwilling to woo the big names lest LBJ not get the lion's share of the credit.
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Overall, I like LBJ. He's an all time talent, and I'm thrilled to have been able to see him play. I agree that he's a pretty good guy on and off the court. But I do see why there are some legit reasons to NOT like him.
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In fairness, there are a lot of BS reasons that people don't like him, namely his outspokenness on a variety of social/political issues. There are a lot of people that want athletes to just shut up and play, and they don't like that superstar athletes are trying to use their large bullhorns to advocate positions that the fans don't like. And LBJ is arguably the most visible of such athletes, and he draws unwarranted ire as a result.
