Why is LeBron getting so much hate?

[gingi79]

I am asking for constructive responses and serious feedback rather than just anger. If you are a Cavs fan and feel spurned that's a valid and understandable response. Just saying "It's not his team" is juvenile.

Here is my viewpoint. Call it the case FOR James joining the Heat.

We, as fans scream and rant and rave that athletes only care about the money. We get mad when players phone in their effort and hold out for more cash rather than showing some soul and honoring their contracts.

Lebron honored his 7 year contact. He put forth a ton of effort and brought a team, by himself, to the Finals. He made a franchise relevant for the first time in decades. He didn't talk about 2010 and Free Agency for the last 5 years even when New York would demand for him to talk about nothing else. He never turned on the Cavs, spoke ill of them or demanded a trade.

He left for a really valid reason. In 7 years, what did management do to get him help? Where was his Scottie Pippen, his Steve Nash, his Tony Parker? How could they not sign ONE SINGLE All Star supporting player in 7 seasons?

So essentially, the guy honored his contract and left because he and DWADE and Bosh together are a formitable team and Cleveland has done nothing to help James for almost a decade. Just hype him to god like status and expect him to do it all himself. Well, that has NEVER worked. Michael needed Scottie, Kobe needed Shaq and then a hell of a support staff. Wade needed Shaq and Jason Williams. The big 3 in Boston. Magic had Worthy and Kareem, Bird had McHale, Parrish, etc. So I have to go on?

Miami isn't even doing something unique. Boston did the same thing, right? Took Paul Pierce (Wade) added Ray Allen (Bosh) and then got Garnett (LeBron) They won a title.

Wade and Bosh and Lebron took LESS money to get together and WIN. That tells me they care about one thing, not ego or garbage "my team starts and ends with ME."

Charles Barkley is an idiot who never won anything. So when he says "He isn't Michael. It's not HIS team. He can win championships but it's not with his own team, it's Wade's team." Right, Barkley, lets ask the Sixers if your opinion on this matter isn't Horse$hit, especially while you were playing with the Suns. Michael only ever played with the Bulls, right? Oh wait! He left and played with the Wizards FOR THE MONEY AND HIS EGO. That's much better! Continue playing well past your prime and your 6 championships on a loser team with no chance in the playoffs because the hundreds of millions of dollars weren't enough. That's much less selfish and self serving.

Michael Jordan has the biggest ego ever and cares about nothing but himself. I lost all respect for him after his HOF "I am Jesus" speech. He demanded players come to Chicago and the team to sign them. He would have left if no one wanted to come play there (like in Cleveland) NO ONE WOULD BLAME HIM. So why is Lebron wrong?

That is the point of the game, to win Championships. So why are people mad at him? He owes Cleveland nothing, they gave him no support and he just wanted to win. How is that wrong?

Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing something and his whole "Decision" thing was obnoxious and self serving but no one is mad about that. So explain it to me, why is LeBron getting so much hate?

[jetersbatboy]

We, as fans scream and rant and rave that athletes only care about the money. We get mad when players phone in their effort and hold out for more cash rather than showing some soul and honoring their contracts.

Wade and Bosh and Lebron took LESS money to get together and WIN. That tells me they care about one thing, not ego or garbage "my team starts and ends with ME."

If I am not mistaken, it was reported Lebron and Bosh are actually making more without the state income. The only one that gave anything up was Wade.

[otismalibu]

When all 3 guys (in their prime) plan this out, it just seems like the guys at the YMCA who try to stack their noon ball squad. Bush.

This isn't the standard aging NBA star w/o a ring who feels he's owed one, so he looks to piggy-back with a contender (Barkley, Payton, Mailman).

It's not like the Cavs were that far away. It just looks like a puss move. Like it would have been too hard or taken too long.

[Fnazxc0114]

I am primarily a baseball fan, so i live with the fact that the majority of the players on my team will play for someone else at some point in their career. It sux seeing all these great name go to the yankees, mets, red sox, but its a fact of life in the MLB. I have no hate for lebron, hes a grown man, and if he wanted to play somewhere else thats is load to bare. If i were a cleveland fan it would sting a litlle knowing he went to the heat for less money than he would have gotten at home, but money in a players pocket dont buy championship rings.

[legaleagle92481]

Jealousy. People hate people who are excessively gifted at something to the point that they can be considered the best there is at it and who as a result get tons of riches and fame. It is the same way with Peyton Manning and Arod in their sports nothing they do will ever be good enough. In hockey they used to treat Jagr that way.

[both-teams-played-hard]

When all 3 guys (in their prime) plan this out, it just seems like the guys at the YMCA who try to stack their noon ball squad. Bush.

This isn't the standard aging NBA star w/o a ring who feels he's owed one, so he looks to piggy-back with a contender (Barkley, Payton, Mailman).

It's not like the Cavs were that far away. It just looks like a puss move. Like it would have been too hard or taken too long.

Totally agree. The YMCA analogy is perfect. I'm not playing right now, I'm waiting for my boys to show up. The stacked team with battery operated sneakers gets beat by 5 stoners wearing Vans. Meanwhile, the stacked team calls foul with every missed shot.
It will be fun to root against the Heat. Besides, I'm an Orlando fan.

[BergerKing22784]

Ive always said I wished players would put the money aside and just take acouple yrs and make a super team to get their rings and championships. Ive always wanted some players to say screw the yankees and make a superteam on their own to battle them and take the rings. I am not even a Twins fan but I feel like they always tend to have the best teams on lowest payroll so I wish a bunch of superstar studs would sign cheap 1 or 2 yr deals to go to them to get a championship or two.

My biggest issue with all of this is they are acting like they already won with parades and all this glamour and I feel like they are rubbing it in on the rest of the leagues face.

He wants to win though and that is fine by me. He is giving up the chance at the title of being called the best ever or one of the best ever by this move but winning as a TEAM is more important to him and I cant fault him for that.

[otismalibu]

Totally agree. The YMCA analogy is perfect. I'm not playing right now, I'm waiting for my boys to show up. The stacked team with battery operated sneakers gets beat by 5 stoners wearing Vans. Meanwhile, the stacked team calls foul with every missed shot. It will be fun to root against the Heat.

It's funny as hell when the stacked teams loses to the leftovers. In a short game, a hot hand and the dynasty falls and begins to woof at each other. But the YMCA ain't the NBA except that everyone now uses the bogus jump step and waves off picks. Shitty NBA officiating has let the overlooked violations trickle down to the playground.

The NBA is a clown league now. Jumped the shark. Daps for a miss.

Jealousy. Nah. I'm a Steelers fan, but actually like Peyton Manning. Now, if he would have left Indy to try and build a Super Team a few years back, different story.

James is in his mid 20s, one of the best players in the league on a top team and he tapped out.

Julius Erving lost in the 1977, 1980 & 1982 Finals before winning his only NBA belt in 1983. He should have gotten together with old ABA pals Iceman & A-Train and tried to build a powerhouse squad.

[legaleagle92481]

How is what Lebron did different than what Arod did? At 25 Arod chased money and went to Texas then decided three years later that money was not enough. He manuvered to get traded to the Yankees, baseball's most stacked team who had just come off a World Series loss and had the game's second best shortstop, after Arod and changed postions to play alongside him. Several years later Arod won a ring and his career was "complete". In the years between the trade and the ring the stacked team flopped in the postseason. Arod lead his team to a championship only after the team that had at the time of the trade, had likely future hofers in Mariano Riveria, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and added and subtracted other likely HOFers during that time period (Clemens, Randy Johnson, Sheffield and Ivan Rodriguez) acquired one of the top pitchers in the game in CC and one of the most productive middle of the order hitters in baseball in Tex.

[BostonSportsFan]

It really is all about the way LeBrick did it. He is free to do whatever he wants wherever he wants that is his choice. You cannot convince me though that he was not trying to stick it to the Cavs on the way out the door. The way he handled this process with Cleveland was like a disgruntled employee trying to stick it to the employer on the way out the door and drive the knife deep into them.

This entire circus was planned out by these guys possibly several years ago. It came down to Wade convincing Riley to get low enough under the cap to make this even possible. If Riley did not know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these guys were all coming down there assuming he could gut the team, there is no way you just gut the whole team. If he did that and did not land these guys Miami would have been stuck for years as a losing club.

LeBrick just handled this incredibly poorly. To not let your employer know until you are going on the air to announce on a nationally televised TV special that you are leaving is just bush league. He did not even have the decency apparently to make that call himself. Assuming that this entire thing was planned at least several months out, why the dog and pony show bringing in all these NBA teams when these guys knew all along what their plan was. It was a complete three ring circus and made everyone look like a bunch of fools.

LeBrick is 25, he is getting so desperate that he cannot wait to win and has to win NOW. Everyone keeps saying that Cleveland does nothing to help him. For god sake, they had the leagues best record the past two seasons. LeBrick's problem is, that nobody cares about the regular season, playoff basketball is totally different and his team and he cannot win when it really counts.

If LeBrick would have been patient and told management, gut the Cavs, get 30 mil under the cap, you don't think his buddy Chris Paul would have come there in two years if you wave enough money at him. How about other front line players. Yeah its Cleveland, but if you wave enough money, someone will take it, maybe not Bosh but someone will. He is just so desperate to win and win now that he will sell his soul to the devil and do whatever it takes to win. Jordan was 28 when he won his first title, LeBron just cannot understand that you don't just show up in the league and someone hands you titles, you have to bleed, sweat and eat, breath and sleep this stuff 7 days a week to be the man. I don't know if he has it in him to do that and nothing he has done recently shows me otherwise.

AGain, I have no problem if he wanted to leave, but how about a call two weeks out to the Cavs ownership saying, I have decided to leave, I would appreciate if you would keep that silent but do what you have to do, thank them for allowing you to play there and go on your merry way.

The whole thing was just handled really, really bad and LeBron came off looking like a complete fool. Please, a one hour special that should have taken 5 minutes what a joke.