LeBron James, You Want To Silence the Haters? Shut Up and Play!

LeBron James cannot seem to shake the Ghost of Summer Past and his now loathed image.  Lately, LeBron has received some hate-mail via Twitter and has now posted them for the whole world to see. 

Some were just mean comments: “hey good game last night, too bad you're a fraud, B****,” others racist: “"u r a big nosed big lipped bug eyed (racial slur). ur greedy, u try to hide ur ghettoness.” 

While racism is the wrong way to go for anyone, there is little question as to why it has come up considering LeBron already tried to play that card in the place of his own ego.  Speaking of which, here’s a note to all tweeters: proving his race call correct won’t make him look as bad.  Either way if LeBron wants to lose all these haters, there are several things he needs to do to regain admiration.

First of all, he needs to quit playing the victim and acting like he did nothing wrong.  Does he really think all this sudden hate came out of nowhere?  Did he really think that stating he was headed for sunnier pastures on national television without any warning would not upset his team, fans, and hometown? 

After all this does he still think it was the right thing to do?  If he does realize it was wrong he’s sure good at hiding it and really bad at admitting mistake.  Whether it’s his blind ego or poor advice from his not-so-experienced managers that’s stopping him from doing so, he needs to admit his mistakes and move on.

Next, LeBron needs to stop trying to blame everything and everybody else for his “hardships”.  (Yeah I know.  Earning approximately $15 mil+ a year and living in a $50 mil mansion in South Beach is definitely the hard life.) 

There was no reason to suddenly state that racism caused this rash of hatred that has been thrust upon him.  If it were, he never would have been liked from the very beginning.  Again, he may have been told to play that card by his manager, Maverick Carter, or he may have just been seeking sympathy, but either way he should know better.  If he’s going to do everything he’s told or whatever he thinks will attract pity, then he needs to consider a new line of work.  Crying foul using racism is not going to fly these days. 

LeBron might also consider turning off his Twitter account.  It just opens the gateway for the haters’ comments (as well an NBA fine should he go overboard).  If he would just shut down his account he would not have to see them.  Here is his response to the comments stated above among others: “U see world how people feel! Just use it as extra motivation in whatever u do best! No one can stop your dreams from becoming reality!” 

OK fine, fair enough, but note that first sentence.  Think he’s trying to play victim again?  Stooping to his haters’ level by responding to them does not help his cause. 

He said himself he does not shake hands with losers, so why tweet with them?

Finally, the best way LeBron can improve his image is to shut up and play.  Every stupid thing he does or says just gives people more incentive to hate him and get after him.  Responding to the hate mail just shows he is bothered by it, so while the hatred may work as motivation now, it will eventually become a distraction. 

It will get to the point that he will be thinking so much about proving haters wrong with his next play that he’ll mess it up.  He wants to do what he does best?  Then, he needs to play basketball and let the game speak for him.