"I've never seen so many people be so happy to see an athlete fail more than LeBron” - Anthony Edwards

[Charlesareed]

Well it's pretty easy, Ant: he whines, throws his teammates and coaches under the bus, begging/forcing teams to draft his son who is clearly not an nba prospect, the Dirk cough, hopping team to team and claiming he never joined a superteam, self proclaiming he's the GOAT and a king, his playstyle is pretty boring, probably taking PEDs, the whole book thing(constantly has a book open but gets defensive when asked a question about said book, just comes off as fake), taking his talents to South Beach, "Not 1, not 2...". That's just off the top of my head. Oh also never got in trouble for taking that car in high school for his mom supposedly

The irony of using this thread to criticize him for something that hasn't even happened yet

[kingr]

It's true for basketball at least. Now there may be some soccer players who receive more hatred as that's more of an internalal sport... But in north america, definitely lebron.

[AleksandarN]

This is 100% because of social media and everyone, including people like me, having a voice online. This site came in to existence in 2000. High speed internet became common around the same time. Before that their was dial up. Before that you only had access to your local paper, Sportscenter, games on broadcast tv, and magazines like Sports Illustrated and Sporting News. People still disliked players, but they had nowhere to voice their opinions other than local playgrounds or gyms, school, work, bars, and other social settings.

Now you can multitask and complain about Lebron on your phone while taking a dump at your local Applebees.

The Kobe vs Lebron debates back in the day were nasty on Realgm.

[zshawn10]

Well it's pretty easy, Ant: he whines, throws his teammates and coaches under the bus, begging/forcing teams to draft his son who is clearly not an nba prospect, the Dirk cough, hopping team to team and claiming he never joined a superteam, self proclaiming he's the GOAT and a king, his playstyle is pretty boring, probably taking PEDs, the whole book thing(constantly has a book open but gets defensive when asked a question about said book, just comes off as fake), taking his talents to South Beach, "Not 1, not 2...". That's just off the top of my head. Oh also never got in trouble for taking that car in high school for his mom supposedly

The irony of using this thread to criticize him for something that hasn't even happened yet

what's worse is telling nba teams that bronny is an actual nba prospect worth drafting

[AleksandarN]

Entire continent of Australia heard F1 fans cheering after Verstappen's engine broke down. Hard to find a guy who has as much haters as Max has right now.

Wasn’t there was a huge amount of hate for Novak Djokovic in Australia not too long ago.

[Loneshot]

I'm not saying anything directly. But in my experience, the biggest Lebron haters are people that just happened to be non-Black.

I dare someone to provide valid, logical reasons for someone to hate Lebron James. I bet you can't do it without mentioning The Decision, which is completely overblown and not a logical reason to hate him.

I'll wait.

[AleksandarN]

Folks hate greatness, especially when they're not capable of it. A lot of great players have been hated on. I know it's easier said than done, but they should wear it like a badge of honor.

I know what you mean. I deal with that on the daily

[Johnny Bball]

I think the thread should have stopped at the title.

I will also be so happy to see such an entitled player, likely the most entitled player there has ever been, retire.

Edit; Oh, and I am in fact non-black, and did laugh at The Decision. Not that any of that matters to why I dislike James.

[Texas Chuck]

when you are the GOAT you get held to the highest standards. In Lebron's case absurd ones. I mean when your worst moments in 20 years of being the face of the league are Taco Tuesday, The Decision, and China, you've done incredible.

Lots of people just hate.
Lots of people love a player and think running down Lebron makes their favorite better (it doesn't, none of this is zero sum)
People get bored easily and want to move on to the next thing.

[Black Jack]

I mean, it's debatable but I think a lot of fans have a special weird love/hate thing going on about BA players.

Not just players look at coaches too...

Forealz, I remember Nash getting so much love coaching during his Nets years

meh the amount of fan taunting of guys like Westbrook is over the top. yes its almost always the black players getting the extreme hatred.

what did Westbrook do to justify all the fans taunting him, racially abusing him courtside etc.?

[Meeksology]

Not just players look at coaches too...

Forealz, I remember Nash getting so much love coaching during his Nets years

meh the amount of fan taunting of guys like Westbrook is over the top. yes its almost always the black players getting the extreme hatred.

what did Westbrook do to justify all the fans taunting him, racially abusing him courtside etc.?

I dont want to get into this because I dont think race has anything to do with it (for the most part), but you seem to think it does.. Both of us going back and forth wont get us anywhere to be honest.

[Cavsfansince84]

I mean all those guys have done things that are fair to criticize whether it’s joining up to 73 win teams, antivax antisemitic rhetoric, being team cancers, whatever. I don’t think anyone is being judged particularly unfairly. Look at Embiid and Luka, they get as much hate as anyone else around. Embiid for being a dirty player and flopped, Luka for being a whiny ball hog

No one is making it almost their sole purpose on message boards to hate on those guys the way probably thousands of people have with LeBron since before he even went to Miami. You know this. Kobe and LeBron have gotten more hate than every other player in the league combined since 2000.

[MrGoat]

I blame Space Jam 2

[Modulate]

This is 100% because of social media and everyone, including people like me, having a voice online. This site came in to existence in 2000. High speed internet became common around the same time. Before that their was dial up. Before that you only had access to your local paper, Sportscenter, games on broadcast tv, and magazines like Sports Illustrated and Sporting News. People still disliked players, but they had nowhere to voice their opinions other than local playgrounds or gyms, school, work, bars, and other social settings.

Now you can multitask and complain about Lebron on your phone while taking a dump at your local Applebees.

[Funcrusher]

Hating lebron if you arent a early 2010s cavs fan has and will always be lame. Hating athletes who dont murder, rape, assault or commit crimes is lame. Being a hater in general for the sake of it is lame. Grow tf up yall

[NZB2323]

As a resident Bron hater, just want to reiterate that it’s not really a generational thing. Jokic is amazing, Giannis had a great ring. It’s specifically and solely LeBron that’s especially lame, not everything post 2003

What about all the over the top hatred for Durant? Westbrook? Kyrie? Harden?

Seems to me thata specifically black American players that get targeted with extreme vitriol.

Well, most players in NBA history have been black Americans. If you made a list of the 10 most beloved NBA players of all time, 9 of them would be black Americans.

And white players can receive hate also:

Watch on YouTube

In the NFL we’ve seen Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Brett Favre receive a lot of hate.

[Funcrusher]

As a resident Bron hater, just want to reiterate that it’s not really a generational thing. Jokic is amazing, Giannis had a great ring. It’s specifically and solely LeBron that’s especially lame, not everything post 2003

What about all the over the top hatred for Durant? Westbrook? Kyrie? Harden?

Seems to me thata specifically black American players that get targeted with extreme vitriol.

Well, most players in NBA history have been black Americans. If you made a list of the 10 most beloved NBA players of all time, 9 of them would be black Americans.

And white players can receive hate also:

Watch on YouTube

In the NFL we’ve seen Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Brett Favre receive a lot of hate.

The thing about the NFL examples is, 2 of those are definitely understandable, arguably all 3 in fact. Hating LeBron just isnt.

[NZB2323]

Hating lebron if you arent a early 2010s cavs fan has and will always be lame. Hating athletes who dont murder, rape, assault or commit crimes is lame. Being a hater in general for the sake of it is lame. Grow tf up yall

Sports hate is different. Laker fans hate the Celtics. Celtics fans hate the Lakers. That rivalry helped turn the NBA into what it is today, and hate helped fuel that rivalry.

The NBA was incredibly popular in 2011 when everyone was hating on the Heat.

[Funcrusher]

Hating lebron if you arent a early 2010s cavs fan has and will always be lame. Hating athletes who dont murder, rape, assault or commit crimes is lame. Being a hater in general for the sake of it is lame. Grow tf up yall

Sports hate is different. Laker fans hate the Celtics. Celtics fans hate the Lakers. That rivalry helped turn the NBA into what it is today, and hate helped fuel that rivalry.

I mean, i have no problem with sports hate, thats always valid and keeps rivalries between teams and fanbases fun. But, cmon, you have to simply be out of touch to not see that their is a great contingent of people that hate LeBron James the person, for whatever reason at heart i cant quite grasp.

[xchange55]

Lebron: "Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7"

Also Lebron:

Who likes the guy who calls himself the greatest ever? Who cries after every play? Who doesn't play defense and blames his teammates for it? When's the last time you saw a player confront his own coach so many times - and all different coaches? So the problem is of course with all these different coaches, it can't be the player right?

His story was all manufactured by the NBA and Nike. They already stamped him the face of the league before he stepped on the court. The reason is they realized that Jordan carried the league to new heights, especially globally, and they needed the next guy. Difference is Jordan wrote his own story from Day 1. I'll give credit to Lebron for not being a bust and living up to a fraction of that hype - but he ain't all that.

Am I happy to see Lebron fail? Not really. Am I going to dial him down several notches when you want to call him the GOAT - YES!