Why Everybody Hates LeBron
Okay, maybe not everybody hates LeBron, but you’d have to admit that there’s a lot of heat directed at the Heat, mostly because of James. And while one could easily understand a certain amount of antagonism coming out of Cleveland, and even New York, since long suffering Knicks fans thought for a moment LeBron might be theirs, this enmity is spread much farther wide.
Why is everyone else (and, it seems, especially Lakers fans and Celtics fans) up in arms? The intensity of the hatred is almost humorous. One LeBron hater (a Laker fan) wrote to me that James had made more bad decisions than any athlete he'd ever seen.
Really? I can think of some others. Just off the top of my head, Ray Carruth, Ben Roethlisberger, Kobe Bryant, Art Schlichter and Barry Bonds come to mind.
They’ll tell you that it was the arrogance of “The Decision.” But, seriously, are sports fans, especially NBA fans, strangers to hype? And considering the strong ratings that show brought in, ESPN's decision certainly seemed to be a good one for the network.
Others argue that a player selecting what team he wants to play for is somehow a bad thing. But free agency has been with us for for over three decades and no one seemed particularly upset when John Elway forced the Baltimore Colts to trade him to the Denver Broncos.
No one even seems to remember that bit of audacity. At the time he was just a college draft pick, having never played a down in the NFL. Where was the outrage over that?
Then there are those who argue that three top level players "conspiring" to play on one team is bad for basketball. And therein, I believe lies the real reason. If it is bad for basketball, it's not because Miami's big three chose to play together. It's bad for basketball because it openly reveals what has always been the NBA's biggest weakness.
Unlike any of the other major team sports, one great player can automatically make an NBA team a playoff contender and two or more great players can make a team a contender to win it all. Try that in the NFL and see how it works out.
Fans of long time dominant franchises, like Los Angeles and Boston, are, to begin with, made uneasy by the revelation of how much easier it is to win in the NBA than they'd care to admit. No, I'm not saying it guarantees a championship, but it sure makes it a strong possibility.
Furthermore, they're outraged that someone else has stolen their formula. The Lakers, in particular, have long benefited from stealing some other town's top player. When Jabbar left Milwaukee, that team never won another trophy (heck, they never won another conference championship) while Jabbar's new team won five.
The acquisitions of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant (in a draft day move akin to the one that netted the Broncos John Elway) didn't turn out too poorly for Los Angeles, either.
So, it's quite easy to see why the pairing of Wade and LeBron would unsettle those who have an interest in maintaining the NBA's status quo. Will it lead to championships in Miami? Maybe. It certainly has increased their chances. But bad for basketball?
Nah. Just NBA business as usual.
