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

[Rainwater]

Man, you can’t be great without some haters. Michael had his haters back in the day as well.

[phanman]

This entire thread itself is a prime example of what Ant is talking about. Look at all his haters just come rushing into this thread explaining the reasons they continue to bash him. I mean get disliking certain athletes because of what they do, did or played for but the hate that certain people have for him cuts deep. Real deep, as if he slept with your ex gf or something

[Funcrusher]

This entire thread itself is a prime example of what Ant is talking about. Look at all his haters just come rushing into this thread explaining the reasons they continue to bash him. I mean get disliking certain athletes because of what they do, did or played for but the hate that certain people have for him cuts deep. Real deep, as if he slept with your ex gf or something

Its just so weird and unatural

[ShootersShoot]

I don't hate bron, but we as fans are free to hate/love players..A lot of folks on this board have such weird irrational hatred for guys like Jokic, Steph curry, Harden, KD but so what? Let them hate, it is their right.

But yea, some are truly out there man..I remember a poster saying something like how he was soooo happy that Lebron had a higher 3pt percentage than Steph. That 3point shooting was all steph had over bron and now he doesnt have that anymore....like calm down my man it aint that deep.

Or what about that Chokic guy? sigh...

[Nate505]

He's going to go down as one of the 3 best NBA players of all time, and I'd say most have him 1st or 2nd. Is that unfair or something?

Do people want to see him fail? Yes, as Wilt said "Nobody roots for Goliath." The fact he's jumped to numerous teams probably has enhanced that hatred though, and justifiably so.

[Iwasawitness]

Full quote: "I've never seen so many people be so happy to see an athlete fail more than LeBron," Edwards said. "His whole career he's been hated on constantly and slandered to no end to the point where when he retires, nobody would have appreciated his greatness. I'm glad I will be one who did."

https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/news-he-s-hated-constantly-anthony-edwards-steps-lebron-james-getting-slandered-playoff-elimination

Jamal Murray recently praised him also:

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Luka always does as Lebron was his favourite player growing up. Seems like a lot of the young stars in the league regularly give Lebron his flowers. It’s the 30, 40 and 50 year olds that never played ball but grew up on MJ and Kobe that can’t appreciate greatness when they see it because they feel insecure about their childhood hero’s legacy. Unfortunate.

Everyone knows my position on LeBron. He's my favorite player of all time. I don't know if that's ever going to change.

But with that said... I actually have to defend people who do criticize LeBron... well, the ones who do within reason.

For example, there is a user on this forum named KembaWalker I believe. He's someone who frequently criticizes LeBron while also acknowledging the greatness he has demonstrated has a player throughout his career. HIs reasoning for criticizing him for the most part isn't without fault. It is reasonable to look at his career and think that he does demonstrate a lack of competitiveness with the amount of team hopping he's done. This is a valid complaint. We've had players throughout history demonstrate loyalty and stay with the franchise that they started with, through both the good and the bad. I myself wish LeBron would have went this route, although with that said, seeing how the landscape of the NBA turned out, he more than likely never succeeds if he did. We've seen instances of LeBron make very questionable character decisions, most notably mocking Dirk's flu during the 2011 Finals. Another notable example is his idiotic not one not two speech. And don't even get me started on his family calling him the GOAT.

There's a lot of things Kemba says I don't agree with. But I do respect his views on the matter because I can see that, at least on his end, he is trying to be objective. You are always going to have those people who make their laughably bad troll takes, but it's like that for every athlete (I still cringe every time people try to criticize Jordan for not beating Boston). But LeBron has made decisions throughout his career that were never going to sit well with a lot of NBA fans, and thus he's put himself under mostly deserved scurrility. It is what it is. But for the most part, it's people like Kemba who actually do acknowledge his greatness, but also understandably hate the decisions and acts he's made. He even now still has some very questionable character traits that I wish would go away.

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

I didn't even know he posted here. Kemba, here you go mate. I wanted you to read the above.

[zimpy27]

People with negative outlooks need an endorphin boost too

[OriginalRed]

He's been in the spotlight too long is the problem. This dude is still dominating headlines heading into year 22 lol. Of course people will have grown tired of him. The moment he retires, the flip on how he's perceived will be so hilariously sublime it will shock people.

[ChiTownHero1992]

Biggest problem and i've said this since 2001-2002ish....when you self proclaim yourself "the chosen one" then later "the king", then "The goat"...you will recieve 0 respect from me your entire career. He is a fantastic player no doubt, but i do not and never will respect him. The flopping, the whining/crying, "need more help", "team up with 50,000 all-stars, all tarnished his entire reputation for me. No amount of STATS will ever make me see past the "bulls***"

A great player...but too much ^ BS for me to ever call him GOAT

[ChipotleWest]

The whole league has practically revolved around Lebron for 15 years now. Yes there's people that aren't fans of him just like Jordan or any other player in history but he doesn't need any pity party.

Literally every player has haters. You could be the nicest guy walk old ladies across the street but if you play in the NBA you'll still have haters.

[Lalouie]

athletes back athletes so what ant and Murray say literally means nothing

[zshawn10]

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.

Jesus, you just turned it into a race thing for no reason.

The Decision was a poor way of telling people where's he going and there's a reason why no other athlete has done that ever after him to announce where they are going. I was going to say Cav fans hate him for that but he came back and won them a ring(dude cited wanting to "come home" as a reason to ditch the Heatles but he knew Wade and Bosh were done.) I get that you have to defend him because he's on your beloved team but there's for sure reasons to hate the guy. Gatekeeping reasons to not hate him feels kind of douchey too.

[zshawn10]

This entire thread itself is a prime example of what Ant is talking about. Look at all his haters just come rushing into this thread explaining the reasons they continue to bash him. I mean get disliking certain athletes because of what they do, did or played for but the hate that certain people have for him cuts deep. Real deep, as if he slept with your ex gf or something

You seriously can't come in here and tell me you didn't hate the guy when he dominating the Raptors in the playoffs continuously to the point where they called him Lebronto. Are you really telling me you didn't hate the guy even then?

[levon]

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.

Jesus, you just turned it into a race thing for no reason.

The Decision was a poor way of telling people where's he going and there's a reason why no other athlete has done that ever after him to announce where they are going. I was going to say Cav fans hate him for that but he came back and won them a ring(dude cited wanting to "come home" as a reason to ditch the Heatles but he knew Wade and Bosh were done.) I get that you have to defend him because he's on your beloved team but there's for sure reasons to hate the guy. Gatekeeping reasons to not hate him feels kind of douchey too.

There were real power dynamic shifts involved with The Decision, including their way of going about it. Windhorst has written/talked about this a lot. I remember the race discussion in 2010 surrounding it. And I feel like the way Fox News and Trump go at him, the way people talk about Klutch as some insidious organization despite other agencies having heavy influences over other teams, you can't deny that that component exists. It's not as simple as "some people hate LeBron because he's black", but rather that he did things that rocked certain boats.

[PedroFlu]

LeBron absolutely has an obnoxious character/behaviour. I understand why people hate him.

But I also think the main reason people hate him os fase - his alledged uncompetitive moves. Guy literally fulfilled all his contracts, never pulled a gun over a GM to do anything. All he did was excert soft power, strive for being the best he could and moving to teams which maximized his chances of winning - except for the Lakers, that runs for 6 years now.

He earned each and every win. Always worked hard as one possibly can. Guy has been face of the league for 21 years now, come on.

Actually the excessive hatred and mockery of him going back to 08-10 is the reason he felt as some kind of underdog to me and I started following his career.

All in all, I really do get why he's hated - but being uncompetitive is NOT a valid reason for it. Absolutely not.

[Michael Jackson]

was Ant alive for this or is Lebron that old?

Watch on YouTube

This is why Lebron is hated, full stop. And he deserves it. He also deserves credit but how anyone can be confused for why he is disliked is just dumb.

He was pretty much unversally loved up until then TBH. That was a turning point. Oddly Kobe was still in the "Colorado" dog house and was not loved but after this it suddenly shifted and Kobe got the universal love....

[phanman]

This entire thread itself is a prime example of what Ant is talking about. Look at all his haters just come rushing into this thread explaining the reasons they continue to bash him. I mean get disliking certain athletes because of what they do, did or played for but the hate that certain people have for him cuts deep. Real deep, as if he slept with your ex gf or something

You seriously can't come in here and tell me you didn't hate the guy when he dominating the Raptors in the playoffs continuously to the point where they called him Lebronto. Are you really telling me you didn't hate the guy even then?

Nope, I disliked him for what he did against our team but I never hated him for it. I actually found it pretty funny when they labelled us LeBronto. It was perfect for our position as the little brother to Cleveland.

[PedroFlu]

Also, I find it very silly the narrative Barkley, Shaq, Skip, Smith and others have spammed that he went the easy way, unlike older players. As if those guys gave up better opportunities to compete for a ring choosing to be loyal to a franchise lol. I assume those opportunities simply didnt show up at that time, as players werent as powerful as today. I simply worked differently.

[zshawn10]

Also, I find it very silly the narrative Barkley, Shaq, Skip, Smith and others have spammed that he went the easy way, unlike older players. As if those guys gave up better opportunities to compete for a ring choosing to be loyal to a franchise lol. I assume those opportunities simply didnt show up at that time, as players werent as powerful as today. I simply worked differently.

That Heat team that Shaq was on; he wasn't the main guy for it lol. Not laughing at you but that's absurd coming from Shaq

Barkley joined the rockets to try to win one

[Hellcrooner]

Yeah shocking how many people root against a guy who cheats, flops, constantly whines, throws his teammates under the bus, and generally acts likes a self centered drama queen.

yep its much better to root for a player that phisically and psycologically assaults his teammates.
And due to its inner not so hidden insecurity behind his narcisistic facade still does trhow shade at his teamates in tv shows 30 years later.