5 Reasons the Haters Should Stop Targeting LeBron James

It's a day that ends in the letter Y, so that means that the haters are out and about when it comes to LeBron James.

It's been a busy week for LeBron, but none of the reasons he's been in the news this week have to do with anything on the court.

The latest escapade involving James mostly has to do with James and his Twitter account.

His latest feud is with Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins regarding Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin's monster dunk over Perkins.

On Jan. 30, James tweeted:

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"Dunk of the Year! @blakegriffin just dunked on Kendrick Perkins so hard!!! Wow! I guess I'm No. 2 now. Move over #6,"

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Yesterday, Perkins said he was upset that James had sent out a tweet to his 3.5 million followers about Griffin's play and had the following to add.

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"You don't see Kobe (Bryant) tweeting," Perkins told Yahoo! Sports. "You don't see Michael Jordan tweeting. If you're an elite player, plays like that don't excite you.

"At the end of the day, the guys who are playing for the right reasons who are trying to win championships are not worrying about one play. They also are not tweeting about themselves talking about going down to No. 2," Perkins added, according to the report. "I just feel (James) is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him."

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The part about James wanting attention and wanting people to like him is probably true, but this is why he's getting hate?  His Twitter account?

There's really only one thing the critics can hate on LeBron for, but we will get to that later on. The sad part is that James can say that these type of things don't bother him, but they really do. After all, he's only human.

Then, if James didn't have to deal with this distraction, former Boston Celtics great Larry Bird had the following to say to Grantland.com's Bill Simmons on "The B.S. Report". While James is the league's best player, he said, Bird would prefer to play with Bryant.

James doesn't apologize for anything he's said or done in either situation and he really shouldn't have to.

The hating on LeBron should stop, and here are five reasons why.

For one he's a nice guy. He's going to have the villain role attached to him throughout the rest of his career, but he's not up to wearing it. James does want to be liked and that really shouldn't be a crime.

Secondly, he does a lot for people. Not every NBA star does as much for the community and underprivileged kids as James does. If they did, then maybe they could talk, but not many people put forth as much effort off the court as James does.

Third, he means well. Does he talk too much? Probably. The guy likes to entertain and rarely if ever does he have a negative thing to say about anyone. He probably shouldn't tweet and put himself in the public eye as much as he does, but he's not harming anyone.

Fourth, he cares. The guy cares about people, especially his teammates. He often deflects the credit he should be getting to his teammates. He did so in Cleveland and has done so in Miami. The guy just wants to be liked. That's no reason for the haters to come out.

Finally, he's probably the best player on the planet. There's a lot of jealousy out there towards LeBron, but that's mostly coming out of jealousy. James could likely prevent many of the haters from coming out by being a little more quiet himself, but again, there's no reason for the hate.

LeBron likes to joke about it, but deep down inside you know he's hurt by the hate he gets, recently saying.

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"I'm an easy target; if someone wants to get a point across—just throw LeBron's name in there," James said. "You could be watching cartoons with your kids and you don't like it, you say, 'Blame it on LeBron.' If you go to the grocery store and they don't have the milk that you like, you just say, 'It's LeBron's fault.' "

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The only thing the haters have a reason to get on LeBron for is the fact that he hasn't won in the postseason yet.

That comes with the territory, unfortunately.

Until he does, the haters are going to be all over him, but apparently for all of the wrong reasons.