All the while, every move, every breath, every bowel movement taken by Lebron James was analyzed by everyone. The media who need something to write about. The fans who hate him for one reason or another. About 99 percent of my Facebook/Twitter peeps were rooting against him and/or the Heat.
Why the Hate?
They cite many reasons for their hate. Let's start from the beginning:
1. The Decision - Lebron teasing what team he was going to led ESPN to help create a prime-time special that was as highly watched as a non-sporting sports event could be. Jim Gray asked Lebron a bunch of nonsense questions before King James announced that he was taking his talents to South Beach. And with that statement, he drew the ire of basically every fan base but the Miami Heat. I'm not so convinced that Bulls fans would have a different perspective of this event had he said he was joining the Bulls, who would likely be hoisting their second title in third years if he joined them.
The glitz and glamour of the Decision aside, what no one mentions is the amount of money Lebron raised for charity through this event: $2M for the Boys & Girls Club. A friend of mine says Lebron could have donated his own money, but that's $2M more than most of us have donated to that. A charitable act like that is still a charitable act.
The glitz and glamour of the Decision aside, what no one mentions is the amount of money Lebron raised for charity through this event: $2M for the Boys & Girls Club. A friend of mine says Lebron could have donated his own money, but that's $2M more than most of us have donated to that. A charitable act like that is still a charitable act.
2. Championship Guarantees - Not even a day later, Lebron made the famous "not 5, not 6, not 7..." championship guarantee. This was preceded by a celebration of Wade, Bosh and James joining forces that resembled a wrestling event more than an NBA team coming together in July. This brash prediction seemed a bit much and only added more fuel to the fire to the bandwagon haters (yes, anyone that has hated the Heat since 2011 is a bandwagon hater). I didn't care for this prediction either way - this definitely added to the hate.
3. Bulls/Heat - Eastern Conference Finals - This is when I saw the hate first-hand as I lived in the Chicago burb of Oak Forest at the time and realized how bad it would be for the future. I went out to my local bar for the first game, a game in which the Bulls romped the Heat and led to extreme overconfidence with many of my friends (you know who you are). The next four games were won by the Heat. I went out for a couple more games for the series, including the clincher in which the Heat came back from double digits down in the last half of the fourth quarter to take the Eastern Conference crown. All the while, cries of the refs favoring the Heat were seen all over. Only the true fan boys blame the refs for losses - as every team gets calls here and there that are ignored when they benefit their team but stressed when they don't.
4. Mavs beat Heat - I was in Vegas for several of the 2011 NBA Finals games (random fact, I can remember starting my Twitter account during this series). The most interesting thing about following the series was how many people all of a sudden treated a Heat loss as if the Bulls were the ones who beat them. Nope - it was the Mavs, led by an unconscious Dirk Nowitzki, the man who was truly destined for the title in this particular year. As Game 6 closed, many Bulls fans celebrated the Mavs victory as if it was their own, which puzzled me.
5. The Crowning A Year Later - In the 2011-12 Finals, the Thunder won game one on their home court but failed to win another game (just like the Bulls). The rest of the series was owned by the Heat, including a title-clinching romp. I don't recall anyone outside of me in my friend base that was happy that this Lebron title-less story was over and done with.
There's probably a few things in between that I'm missing, but you get the point/timeline.
The Jordan Rules: Unraveling the Myth
Now, a year later, the Heat add a title to their resume and people hate the Heat more than ever. Which brings me to my next topic, a topic that I swore I'd never address again as recently as last year when comparisons between Jordan and Kobe were made constantly.
Last year, now that Lebron had a title under his belt, the topic of Michael Jordan was brought up as a comparison point as to who whether Lebron is better than him.
Let me tell you how ridiculous the comparison is:
(1) We're comparing how Lebron is now to how Jordan finished, not where Jordan was at this point in his career. Lebron has just completed his 10th NBA season and won his second title. Jordan had three titles after 10 seasons. While Jordan was 32 entering his 11th season and on the precipice of winning the last three of his titles, Lebron will still be under 30 and has a chance to win as many as Jordan did. But is that really the argument? If he wins as many or more titles than Jordan, would Jordan fans really concede that Lebron is better? By the time Lebron turns 34, he may have as many titles as Jordan.
(2) No matter the titles, Jordan fans will say that MJ > Lebron...but then why does it always come up as an argument point - that MJ has more titles than Lebron? The total titles is just an excuse. Lebron could win 8 and it wouldn't matter with many fans - Jordan would be better.
(3) Jordan didn't need to join forces with a team. This argument makes me laugh the most. The myth of Jordan, as everyone has built, states that Jordan would have never joined forces with other superstars (a la James) to win a title.
Do you know the players that were drafted or acquired by the Bulls in the Jordan years (the pre-title years and the second title runs included)? Here are the best ones (there were some duds in between, but enough hits to help Jordan)
- 1987 - Horace Grant drafted, Scottie Pippen acquired in the draft. The Pippen trade might be the biggest fleecing in an NBA trade in our lifetimes (traded for Olden Polynice). Grant was a starter on the first three title teams.
- 1989 - Another starter for the championships was drafted: B.J. Armstrong. Not a superstar, but a sufficient player that helped Jordan.
- 1990 - Toni Kukoc, a key contributor to the second set of titles
- 1995 - Dennis Rodman acquired in a trade for Will Purdue
In the entire title run, there wasn't a time where Jordan was playing without at least one Hall of Famer. 1991 through 1993, he had Pippen; 1996-98 he had Pippen and Rodman.
Now....do you know the best signings and draft picks the Cavaliers made since James was drafted there in 2003?
The best player to be drafted by the Cavs between James and 2010? That's a tough call. Do you go Daniel Gibson (7.8 points/game for his career), who is best known by his feminine "Boobie"? Or is it J.J. Hickson? What I was totally unaware of before looking at this draft list was that the Cavs drafted the newly-famous Danny Green, who was only with them for 2009-10 and played sparingly, going to the Spurs the next year.
Free agent/trade-wise, James played with some stars who were waaaaaay past their primes. Ben Wallace & Shaq were among the stars who had faded long before they joined forces with a young Lebron. Mo Williams was about as prime of a star as Lebron had in his time in Cleveland.
If Lebron wanted to win a title, he had no choice but to join forces with other superstars - no superstars were going to the Cavaliers, and they certainly were drafting anyone that helped Lebron in the slightest. NBA history has shown that you need Hall of Famers around you to win titles. Lebron wasn't going to win it with this consistent rag-tag bunch of misfits. Yes, there were years of getting the 1 or 2 seed, but that was a testament to how great Lebron was and had little to do with the players around him.
Now you're telling me that Jordan wouldn't have left the Bulls if he was in the same situation - terrible talent evaluation and free agent acquisitions - with his drive to win and further market his Jordan brand? Jordan may say he would have never left, that he would have never wanted to play with the guys who he competed against, but that's only with the benefit of hindsight - he would have left in a heartbeat if he didn't think Pippen and company could help win him a title (and let's not forget that guy Phil too). If the roles were reversed, James would have never had to leave his original team, as he would have had a competent front office that made moves to help surround him with the parts necessary to win a title. And yes, I believe Jordan would have left the Bulls if Jerry Krause was unable to put the necessary players (including a Hall of Famer in Pippen) in place.
Haters Gonna Hate
The one thing I have learned to accept for the most part is that most people I'm close to will never appreciate Lebron as much as they should, for many of the reasons mentioned above. The arguments of hating him get tiresome - if you want to hate him for his whining and flopping, I'm way more ok with that than any other reason mentioned above (he has no reason to complain or flop).
But if you're going to hate him for a Decision, surely not Lebron's finest hour, 60 minutes erred in judgment (you've never had a Decision or erred in judgment like that, Yeah...), which mind you, helped donate $2M in charity, get over it. It happened three years ago.
The best part of being freed from the Lebron/Heat hate that people around me have is that I've been able to enjoy the best NBA player do his thing without wasting energy to hate something/someone. Why can't we just enjoy things these days, enjoy immense talents like Lebron, a once-in-a-lifetime talent, without having an element of hate?
Have fun wasting your energy with hate. I'll continue to enjoy one of the best ever without all of the stress and hate that accompanies your viewing of Lebron and the Heat.
(If you've read this far, I should note that I'm not a Heat fan, but a fan of Lebron - but I guess you'll associate it all the same, so no worry).
