Why Basketball Fans Hate LeBron James
Everybody hates a player in some sport. Usually, it's the best player on your rival team. It's only natural to hate that player because they typically stand in the way of victory. What's rare is a player who is hated by fans of every team, including their own. In 2024, that is the type of player that LeBron James is.
It Wasn't Always This Way
In February 2002, LeBron James, then a junior on his high school basketball team, graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. The average casual basketball fan had no idea who he was, and their introduction to him was him being dubbed “The Chosen One”. They couldn't help but be curious about who this kid from Akron, Ohio was.
To accommodate the ticket demand, his high school basketball games had to be played at the University of Akron. When his team was on ESPN, ratings went through the roof. Lebron James wasn't just a basketball player. He was a phenomenon. He was must-see TV.
Though it may seem impossible, his play surpassed all of the hype. We had never seen a player his size, with his speed, who had his insane court vision, and who was this athletic. He looked like a 30-year-old man playing against 15-year-olds and wasn't even the oldest player on the floor. This teenager quickly became the Tiger Woods of basketball and captivated the world.
Hatred's Humble Beginning
When awe and amazement come together, their union gives birth to jealousy. The public will allow an athlete to achieve a finite amount of greatness before they feel the need to tear that athlete down. It starts with your competitors, pollutes your peers, and eventually poisons the public.
James's mother bought him a Hummer H2 as a birthday present in his senior season. She was able to afford it by using his future earnings as collateral. Undoubtedly, LeBron James would be the first pick in the NBA draft, but he had not declared it. Since it was tied to his performance, the gift became his first scandal, and the hate began.
There were those who believed he should be kicked off the basketball team and declared ineligible for amateur sports. Did the people calling for this want to protect the integrity of amateur sports? The answer is no. They just wanted to see a high school kid get smacked down to the ground, which made them feel better about themselves.
This was the beginning, but it was merely a blip. James would become the first overall pick in the NBA draft, the Rookie of the Year, an All-Star, and the face of Nike basketball. The naysayers were the minority, as the majority of basketball fans continued to cheer and be amazed by the athleticism of this fresh-faced young man. We were all witnesses.
The Decision
At the young age of 22, LeBron James would take an NBA roster barely worthy of being called such to the finals. They would be swept by the San Antonio Spurs, and the basketball world pushed for the Cavaliers to put a team around him that could help him win and carry the league through the first part of the 21st century.
The world begged for a LeBron James versus Kobe Bryant NBA finals, Lakers versus Cavaliers. Sadly, it never came to fruition. What we did get was a Boston Celtics franchise that created a super team specifically designed to beat James and the Cavaliers. James begged the Cleveland brass to do for him what Danny Ainge had done for Paul Pierce.
His pleas fell on deaf ears, and in the summer of 2010, he took matters into his own hands. If the Cavaliers would not build him a super team, he would build his own. He partnered with friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and joined the Miami Heat. Under normal circumstances, everyone could side with him on this. However, the way that he did it was anything but normal.
Instead of Sportscenter announcing where the league's top free agent had signed, James chose to have a 1-hour televised special so the entire world could hear him make his announcement. The amount of self-importance that it took to put it all together chafed even the most loyal James supporters.
We understood he needed to go to a better team; we just didn't want him to rub it in our faces. So it only made matters worse when he threw a giant party in South Beach and told the entire world, “Not one, not two, not three…..”
The Wheels Came Off The Bandwagon
It takes time for a team to mesh. It doesn't happen overnight. When the Miami Heat struggled initially, LeBron James used his influence to try to get a promising young coach fired. The team president told him to pound sand, but the world felt that it had seen James's true colors.
The team won two championships in the next four years. However, their losses showed the brightest, in particular, how LeBron James struggled when it mattered and disappeared down the stretch. In a move that could only be construed as blaming his team, LeBron felt it was time to make another decision.
James went back to Cleveland, but before he did, he wanted to make sure that the team loaded up on talent so that he could join a championship-ready organization. They traded the first overall pick for All-Star power forward Kevin Love, and they already had All-Star guard Kyrie Irving. Despite taking the team to the NBA finals in his first season, LeBron James ran head coach David Blatt out of town.
Picking the next head coach himself, James got former player Tyronn Lue. It worked out, as the team won the NBA championship. There was a feeling among fans that LeBron James viewed himself as the architect of that team since he picked his teammates and the coach. When he skipped town to go to the Los Angeles Lakers, it's only natural that he would also want to build the team there.
James won a championship in Los Angeles while going through a handful of teammates and several coaches. There is no question that he is one of the greatest players in basketball history, but in viewing his history, it's easy to understand why so many people dislike him.
In Conclusion
Lebron James has done some amazing things off the court as a humanitarian. He'll be the first person to tell you that. If you do something nice for someone and then brag about it, do you think that you'll be judged for the nice thing or the bragging?
Lebron James wants everybody to like him, and in trying to please everybody, he has alienated most. At one point, LeBron James tried to embrace being the villain, taking a page from Kobe Bryant. It backfired. Kobe Bryant didn't care what people thought about him, but LeBron James did, and when you care about what people think, you don't like people thinking you are a villain.
Seek, and ye shall find. A person seeking attention will get it, but it won't all be good. Lebron James is that Facebook friend who posts 14 times a week about their life. He's also the person who deletes your comment and blocks you if you disagree with him. It's easy to forget how great his career is because he makes it so darn easy to root against him.
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