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

[Drakeem]

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?

I hated playing against him but I always respected him as a player and as a person. I don't think people truly realize how hard it is to stay somewhat level headed when you've reached that level of success, and when it starts at that young of an age. The pressure, people whispering in your ear, your own ego, companies beating down on you, friends trying to drag you back, family with their hands out and knives behind their back, etc.

There's a reason a lot of child stars have severe issues they have to work out later on in their careers/lives.

[Drakeem]

What's funny is all his stans calling out his haters and defending him like he is their family or something. I don't get it. Why does it bother you so much that people don't like him? Lebron doesn't know you or give a crap about you. Lebron's legacy will not be impacted whether you defend him or not. It so sad to see some of the posters live here all day long just to defend the guy.

And one more thing, what's wrong with hating? All of us are a fan, and fandom consists of love and hate. We all hate, whether it's a team or player. Lakers fan hates Celtics and vice versa. I'm a Portland Trail Blazers fan, and thus I hate the Lakers and most of their players. Is that wrong?

Btw, I hate Lebron for many reason, but it's mostly related to his narcissistic diva character. I admire his play on the court, but I wish he would retire already. Just so sick of the media constantly pushing his narratives on us. It's time to move on already.

Can't someone say the same thing about putting the effort into hating the guy? Your hate will not change your life or impact his. It's two sides to the same coin tbh.

[Marrrcuss]

What's funny is all his stans calling out his haters and defending him like he is their family or something. I don't get it. Why does it bother you so much that people don't like him? Lebron doesn't know you or give a crap about you. Lebron's legacy will not be impacted whether you defend him or not. It so sad to see some of the posters live here all day long just to defend the guy.

And one more thing, what's wrong with hating? All of us are a fan, and fandom consists of love and hate. We all hate, whether it's a team or player. Lakers fan hates Celtics and vice versa. I'm a Portland Trail Blazers fan, and thus I hate the Lakers and most of their players. Is that wrong?

Btw, I hate Lebron for many reason, but it's mostly related to his narcissistic diva character. I admire his play on the court, but I wish he would retire already. Just so sick of the media constantly pushing his narratives on us. It's time to move on already.

Can't someone say the same thing about putting the effort into hating the guy? Your hate will not change your life or impact his. It's two sides to the same coin tbh.

Yea, its crazy that folks think being a fan is a bad thing and being a hater is justified. When did these things change???

Im not going to read all 10 pages but did anyone admit to hating lebron for his political views or did everyone lie? lol

[God Squad]

"Hate" comes with Greatness. The fact LeBron dominated for so long created the hate. Tom Brady had to deal with much of the same.
To a lesser extent, people hate and enjoy seeing Steph Curry lose.

With that said a majority of fans still respect the hell of out these players, regardless if they don't want to see them win again.

[lakerz12]

What's funny is all his stans calling out his haters and defending him like he is their family or something. I don't get it. Why does it bother you so much that people don't like him? Lebron doesn't know you or give a crap about you. Lebron's legacy will not be impacted whether you defend him or not. It so sad to see some of the posters live here all day long just to defend the guy.

And one more thing, what's wrong with hating? All of us are a fan, and fandom consists of love and hate. We all hate, whether it's a team or player. Lakers fan hates Celtics and vice versa. I'm a Portland Trail Blazers fan, and thus I hate the Lakers and most of their players. Is that wrong?

Btw, I hate Lebron for many reason, but it's mostly related to his narcissistic diva character. I admire his play on the court, but I wish he would retire already. Just so sick of the media constantly pushing his narratives on us. It's time to move on already.

Can't someone say the same thing about putting the effort into hating the guy? Your hate will not change your life or impact his. It's two sides to the same coin tbh.

Maybe for some it’s not so much “hate” as it is they simply don’t care much for LeBron compared to other players.

Why is everyone forced to like LeBron?

There are a menu of players to choose from. You don’t have to like everything on the menu.

I know some very casual fans who just don’t care much for LeBron. That doesn’t make them “haters”, or at least it shouldn’t.

I feel like LeBron fans are extremely sensitive and immediately label any criticism of LeBron as “hate” to try to discredit it.

Even with someone like Tom Brady, people were allowed to criticize him. It was like “yeah he’s not their favorite player, they root for another team”.

But you can’t criticize LeBron without being immediately labeled a variety of things. His fans are really touchy.

[Marrrcuss]

"Hate" comes with Greatness. The fact LeBron dominated for so long created the hate. Tom Brady had to deal with much of the same.
To a lesser extent, people hate and enjoy seeing Steph Curry lose.

With that said a majority of fans still respect the hell of out these players, regardless if they don't want to see them win again.

Stop it. He has less haters than any major athlete i can think of. You tried it.

[NYPiston]

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.

Why do some people have to resort to this? The guy who made the Lebron comment is universally liked and he's black, SGA is liked, Jamal Murray is liked, Dame was universally liked for most of his career etc.

It's not a black/white thing although there's always a few racists out there, there's over the top hatred for those guys because the best players in any sport always receive hate from a certain group of fans (Hell look at Tom Brady, a white player btw, who received tons of scrutiny during his playing days). Those guys also received hate because...well...some of it was warranted being malcontents at multiple stops requesting trades forcing trades to preferred destinations, Kyrie's warped views on certain things, Westbrook because of his general grumpiness and should I even list the ten million reasons why Lebron would receive scrutiny? Sure it's over the top, way over the top at times, but this is how fans (fanatics) tend to be. It comes with the territory.

[NyKnicks1714]

I was that hater. Never missed an opportunity to clown on the dude. It wasn't until he became a Laker that I realized that I had taken his greatness for granted all those years. Now I find myself defending his career at various social gatherings, talk about coming full circle...

I think there would be a completely different perception of Lebron if he just toned down the narcissism.

Started watching the Lakers in 1984. Lebron James is the first player that ever got me to stop watching the Lakers. Not even those horrendous rebuilds with Tierre Brown and Smush Parker compelled me to quit watching. And since 99% of my NBA consumption was Laker games, I've pretty much stopped watching all NBA content the last few years.

It was weird at first, to not have the Lakers as a regular part of my life, but slowly got used to it. I'll probably start watching again when he retires, but I'm not in any hurry.

You hate LeBron so much that you stopped watching your favorite basketball team? Lmao I'm sorry but that's absolutely hilarious. A bit unhinged too, but I respect the commitment. You walk the walk.

That is just an incredible amount of power LeBron has over his life. It's kind of scary.

[DimesandKnicks]

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.

This is a really stupid reason to hate a player

[zero rings]

Lebron is an insufferable twat and the media that promotes him is even worse.

That’s really all there is to it.

[nikster]

If you want to consider their moves similar intent I get it, but they were very different in reality. KDs team won 70+ games, was just in back to back finals, made it to the finals when KD got injured, and won a title after he left, and was healthy the whole time he was there.

Lebron joined a 47 win team, they added Bosh but gutted the rest of the roster and were devoid of good role players there first year. Year 2 Bosh went down and missed most of the run through the eastern conference and by year 3 Wade was not at all the same.

Always found this double standard funny. The Warriors lost two starters but it was still the 73 wins team that KD joined, meanwhile LeBron joined a 47 wins team (forget Bosh wasn't on that team) in a weak conference that basically had 1 team after The Decision. Yeah, what KD did is probably worse but both were pretty damn bad.

GSW kept their 4 most important players, 5 of their top 7 rotation players. KD replaced Barnes. Bogut was a starter but was less important than iggy, only played 20 mpg that season and even less in the playoffs.

'Forget Bosh' I literally mentioned they added Bosh. Heat lost 3 of their top 5, and the other key player in top 5 Haslem had an injury that took him out for majority if the season and was never really the same after words.

And of course we see what happened when KD went down. With a max contract sized hole in the roster they close out Hardens rockets, Sweep the WCF and go down to the wire of game 6 of the finals.

[zero rings]

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.

This is a really stupid reason to hate a player

Stacking the deck and then taking a victory parade before a single game is played?

Seems like a pretty good reason to me.

[bledredwine]

1. Quitting multiple times on court
2. Only top ten player who participates in flopping
3. Leaving teams as soon as they couldn't win it all, trying to ring chase
4. Forming teams with other top 10 players
5. Caring more about legacy and stats than team success, and it ha's manifested exactly as it should have.
6. Lives off of his 0-3 foot game (I also couldn't stand Orlando Magic Shaq for this reason)
7. The fans who overrate him and love putting down Kobe, of course.
8. Though related directly to #3/4, the Miami Big 3 was the most cheating move in NBA history, alongside Durant. Then stating "not 6, not 7, not 8" in tandem showed a complete lack of competitive drive, if he's to be considered a fierce competitor, which just isn't. He's not Bird, Wilt, Magic Kobe or Jordan when it comes to that.

[chrismikayla]

It seems no one has addressed the real elephant in the room: Lebron is outspoken when it comes to social injustice. THIS is the real reason many don’t like him, and they just want him to “shut up and dribble “.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[nikster]

1. Quitting multiple times on court
2. Only top ten player who participates in flopping
3. Leaving teams as soon as they couldn't win it all, trying to ring chase
4. Forming teams with other top 10 players
5. Caring more about legacy and stats than team success, and it ha's manifested exactly as it should have.
6. Lives off of his 0-3 foot game (I also couldn't stand Orlando Magic Shaq for this reason)
7. The fans who overrate him and love putting down Kobe, of course.
8. Though related directly to #3/4, the Miami Big 3 was the most cheating move in NBA history, alongside Durant. Then stating "not 6, not 7, not 8" in tandem showed a complete lack of competitive drive, if he's to be considered a fierce competitor, which just isn't. He's not Bird, Wilt, Magic Kobe or Jordan when it comes to that.

3, 4 and 8 are the same thing. Lack of competitive drive is also a funny criticism for a player who has competed at the highest level for this long.
Disliking a playstyle is a interesting reason to hate a player, especially when every all time great big man is in a similar boat of dominating at the rim: Wilt, Duncan, Hakeem, etc... (and Lebrons not even close to any version of Shaq for attempts at the rim).
As is hating him for his fans lol

[nikster]

It seems no one has addressed the real elephant in the room: Lebron is outspoken when it comes to social injustice. THIS is the real reason many don’t like him, and they just want him to “shut up and dribble “.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

The Lebron hate peaked after the decision and his 2011 failure, I don't recall him being outspoken at that point on his career

[rapstarter]

It seems no one has addressed the real elephant in the room: Lebron is outspoken when it comes to social injustice. THIS is the real reason many don’t like him, and they just want him to “shut up and dribble “.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

Not really an elephant in the room. It is A reason many don't like him but he was hated long before he was outspoken on several issues.

The Decision is by far the biggest reason he's gotten hate and everything else came either later or in smaller doses.

[DimesandKnicks]

"Hate" comes with Greatness. The fact LeBron dominated for so long created the hate. Tom Brady had to deal with much of the same.
To a lesser extent, people hate and enjoy seeing Steph Curry lose.

With that said a majority of fans still respect the hell of out these players, regardless if they don't want to see them win again.

Stop it. He has less haters than any major athlete i can think of. You tried it.

Especially for someone who hotdogs as much as he does

[ropjhk]

People who think that insecurity is the only or main reason Lebron gets hated upon are out of touch with reality.

[NyKnicks1714]

1. Quitting multiple times on court
2. Only top ten player who participates in flopping
3. Leaving teams as soon as they couldn't win it all, trying to ring chase
4. Forming teams with other top 10 players
5. Caring more about legacy and stats than team success, and it ha's manifested exactly as it should have.
6. Lives off of his 0-3 foot game (I also couldn't stand Orlando Magic Shaq for this reason)
7. The fans who overrate him and love putting down Kobe, of course.
8. Though related directly to #3/4, the Miami Big 3 was the most cheating move in NBA history, alongside Durant. Then stating "not 6, not 7, not 8" in tandem showed a complete lack of competitive drive, if he's to be considered a fierce competitor, which just isn't. He's not Bird, Wilt, Magic Kobe or Jordan when it comes to that.

3, 4 and 8 are the same thing.

9. Stacking the deck
10. Leaving teams in free agency for other teams
11. Forming the big 3 in Miami
12. Signing with the Lakers who had good young players to trade for AD
13. Signing with Miami in 2010
14. Signing with Cleveland who had Kyrie
15. Miami
16. Stacking the deck dice?