LeBron James: A Love/Hate Relationship

I want to make a statement about LeBron James before he wins his NBA title and it's cool to like him again. I have a love/hate relationship with LeBron. I hate the people that hate him and I love the people that love him. Since The Decision, it has become way too easy to hate on LeBron. I've heard every argument for why I shouldn't like this guy:

He isn't going to win his rings on his own! His legacy will never carry the same weight as Jordan's!
How could he go to play with two other superstars?
How could he leave his hometown of Cleveland?

To me, these are all the same argument. I'll tell you how he can leave Cleveland to go play with two other superstars. Cleveland gave him Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, and Antwan Jamison five years after his name was last spoken on SportsCenter. After LeBron left these stiffs to fend for themselves, that team was the worst in the NBA. Some may argue that that team was built around LeBron James, specifically designed to cater to his talents. Well, obviously that isn't what LeBron wanted. He didn't want a bunch of scrubs that would let him thrive. The guy is a facilitator on the court but when the other players can't hit a shot, it doesn't matter how many opportunities you create for them. I mean, seriously, that team barely had another starter on it; nonetheless, LeBron willed them to the finals one year and the best record in the NBA more than once. It is clear that the Cleveland front office could not provide LeBron with what he wanted. That's on them. He doesn't owe them anything for trying their hardest.

I will say it again. That Cleveland team was terrible. So why would you expect the greatest player of our generation to go back to a small market, to play with a bunch of stiffs, and basically max out their salary cap for years to come? Meanwhile, the rest of the NBA is centralizing the league's best talents into a few select teams.  Come on. It is just fucking stupid for a great NBA player to throw away valuable years of his career for the sake of loyalty and hometown connections. We have no right to judge this guy for his career decision.

Put yourself in the same situation. Imagine you grow up in Philadelphia, love Philadelphia, go to school in Philadelphia, eventually become a professor at Philadelphia University. You do some amazing research there, but your peers aren't quite pulling their weight. When your contract is up, you are offered a job to go teach at Harvard and do research with some of the brightest academic minds in the country.  You decide to accept the offer, and consequently, half the country turns on you.  Now, while you weren't responsbile for the entire city's economy like LeBron James was in Cleveland, the consideration is one that you must make based on your own aspirations and experiences, not based on how others will perceive it. You can't rip a guy for going to a new organization with better managment and better personnel. Employees do this every day.

On that same note, people hate on LeBron for going to play with superstars in free agency. They claim his legacy will be tarnished because he won't win his championships on his own. There are five players on a basketabll team. No one wins it alone. This also goes back to the Cleveland front office argument. If LeBron had a great front office like Chicago did when they brought Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman together, like Boston did when they brought Bird, McHale, and Parrish together, like LA did when they brought Magic, Kareem, and Worthy together, then he might have stayed in Cleveland. The reality is that almost all championship teams in the past 20 years have had a big three in some capacity. Furthermore, many of the elite teams in the NBA right now have a big three. Chicago (Rose, Deng, Boozer, Noah), Boston (Pierce, Garnett, Rondo), OKC (Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka), San Antonio (Duncan, Parker, Ginobli), LA (Bryant, Bynam, Gasol), etc. I choose to think that LeBron values the team rather than being the hero that wins the championship single-handedly (although this is exactly what he is doing this year).

Now, that's why you shouldn't not like LeBron James. Here's why you should like him. It's plain and simple, not difficult to grasp at all. LeBron James is the best player that my generation has ever seen, and more importantly, he may be the best player that I ever get to see play the game.  I am a few years too young to have appreciated Michael Jordan's greatness, so I certainly will not be wasting this short, precious time that I get to witness LeBron James with petty criticisms of his character. I mean, this guy is making every other player in the league look like a grade-schooler when he decides to take it to the hoop.  Can't we just appreciate that?

Jesus Christ people. Everyone is so busy trying to find flaws in LeBron's game and personality and compare him to Jordan that they are missing out on what is turning into one of the best NBA careers of all time. Here's a fun fact: LeBron James just tied his own playoff record with 14 straight games of 25+ points. Jordan never did that. LeBron also is the first player ever to record at least 600 points, 200 rebounds, and 100 assists in a playoff series. Jordan? Nope. Not to mention, he plays point-power forward. Get the fuck out of here. The guy is a freak of nature.

But these aren't reasons that LeBron is better than Jordan; that's not my point. I don't know if he is. My point is that these comparisons don't mean anything because you can find one statistic where Jordan outshines LeBron and others where LeBron outshines Jordan. Meanwhile, you are taking away from the significance of the present achievements when you constantly look backwards to compare LeBron to the greats that came before him.

Yeah, The Decision was handled poorly. Despite the immense funds raised for charity, we all knew that the purpose of this press conference was so LeBron could have his big moment in the spotlight. I concede that this is a good reason to dislike LeBron. The Decision revealed LeBron to be narcissistic and immature, qualities that we never saw from him in Cleveland. It showed that free agency, big market teams, and his title as King James had gone to his head. However, I don't think we as fans are in any position to judge LeBron James. The man has some pretty unique circumstances that surround his life, so I don't expect him to have the same maturity level as someone who has struggled with adversity their entire life. LeBron James was pegged as "The Chosen One" when he was like sixteen years old. And then all he did was live up to the hype and probably exceed it.  The guy is everything they promised us. Imagine what his life must have been like. I would venture that he didn't need to really grow and mature that much. He was universally loved and praised and probably handed everything he ever wanted in life. We cannot sit in our chairs watching SportsCenter and pretend that we have any idea about what this guy's life is about.

In a certain sense, it is actually great that The Decision backfired so tremendously on him. Now, we are finally seeing a maturing and growing LeBron James. Being faced with such animosity and such criticism has really brought the best out in James, as we are now witnessing in this year's playoffs. He is really showing everyone why he may go down as the greatest of all time. While some may still hate on the guy, those people  fail to appreciate a once in a generation talent.

So appreciate him. He's the fucking man and you may never see anyone like him again. In twenty years, when the new generation of athletes is taking over the NBA, and these new superstars are being compared to LeBron James, and your kids ask you how good LeBron was, you can tell them not to worry about it and just to appreciate the players playing right now. Except, that's really cause you don't remember how good James was, because you were too busy comparing him to everyone that came before him.

And then you shoot yourself in the face because you can't deal with the shame. Don't shoot yourself in the face. Get DirecTV.

I hate those commercials and I actually hope the guy that came up with them does shoot himself in the face.

Glad we could end on such a positive note.