Lebron James; Hero or Villian?

[Delchampia]

I know what some of you may be thinking: I don't watch sports, this doesn't pertain to me.

I would ask you to take a step back and examine this from a political standpoint. Public opinion is critical in setting the agenda of world politics, so what the people think about public images such as NBA stars is indeed connected to public policy in a circuitous way.

And for those of you who are avid fans of basketball like I am, I would also ask you to participate in this poll. Please don't hold back on your thoughts, I will try my best to objectively withhold my opinion of him (don't want to inject a bias into the poll explanantion), even though I will probably subconsciously try to sway you into falling into my line of thought

Let me give you a little background on the man himself:

"LeBron James isn’t the first high schooler to jump to the NBA, but he may just be the best. Almost from Day One, his basketball IQ hovered at genius level, and his physical skills were off the charts. Today, as a two-time MVP, his leadership skills are beyond question as well. LeBron is the reason everyone was talking about the NBA in July of 2010. His free agency was covered like a Moon Shot. Now a member of the Miami Heat, he is shooting for the moon. Few doubt he can do it." -JockBio

The talent of LeBron James is not up for debate; he is one of the most talented players to ever hold a basketball. Yet he gets more criticism than any sports figure in the world. Why is this?

Most "haters" of LeBron cite his PR debacle notoriously known as "The Decision" as their reason for disliking the man. LeBron made his decision to leave Cleveland and sign with the Miami Heat an overly public and downright cocky nationally televised interview:



It's long and uninteresting to most, but I've left a link to the interview for those who are curious.

Since then, he has competed at an extremely high level, and has put up statistics that exceed the numbers of greats like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. People discount his excellent play, citing that he has never won a championship, that he has no "clutch gene", that he has no drive to take over in big games, etc. It appears that no matter how well he performs, people are finding reasons to discredit his incredible talent.

LeBron isn't a politician, he is a basketball player. Sure he isn't the best with handling his fame in the media, but is that really reason enough to despise him and to deny he is possibly the best basketball player of all time?

On Thursday, LeBron played a legendary game to save his team from playoff elimination in game 6 in Boston.Tonight, LeBron is playing with his team the Miami Heat against the Boston Celtics in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, another elimination game. I am very excited to see if LeBron can do again what he did in game 6 as the whole world watches.

tl;dr people hate LeBron, he doesn't care, is the NBA's Most Valuable Player

How do you feel about him?

Do you think he is finally ready to win a championship?

Please vote and leave your thoughts and comments below!

[Heraldic Alliance]

He is a villain of the people. He is nothing more than a symbol of everything that is wrong in society today. He based his decision to go to Miami on money and where he thought he could get the most glory (NBA championships) for the smallest amount of work. He knew he could never do it by himself so he orchestrated an alliance of 3 like minded all-stars to do it with him.

[Delchampia]

Thank you for your vote!

Here's my response to your comment:

I think every single professional sports player bases their decision to go to a team on the possibility of winning a championship and getting the highest salary they can, the NBA is a business. I honestly believe that any NBA player who says they wouldn't have left Cleveland for Miami is lying. He led an otherwise awful Cleveland team deep into the playoffs every year and they couldn't support him enough to win it all. Just look at what happened to the team when LeBron left (they had the worst record in the NBA). Nobody has ever been able to win a championship by themselves; Kobe had Shaq, Jordan had Pippen and Rodman, etc. It's just impossible to win a championship 1v5, you have to credit him for trying all those years, Cleveland is lucky he didn't demand a trade or try to end his contract early as far as I'm concerned.

[Benevolent Thomas]

LeBron is a hero. If you watched that last series with Boston, he practically carried the team to a victory. It is the goal of all of us to be successful so that means both monetary wealth and recognition for one's abilities. I would have left Cleveland if I were him as well, the city was not paying enough for his talents nor were they allowing him to be as successful as he could be.

He is currently on a team of all-stars, the big three. One of the three was injured for a majority of the series, and the other was unproductive as he saw tight defense from Boston. As Boston took the lead over Miami in the Conference Finals hope was beginning to slip away for the heat. LeBron then puts up one of the greatest games ever to keep the series going and it eventually motivated the entire team to step up. Its because of LeBron James that Miami is going to the Championship.

I am a Orlando Magic fan so this answer is not a bias one.

[Badger Mountain]

I don't think he is a hero or a villain. He is an athlete, and a great one at that. I think his whole "decision" thing was regrettable. He has said he wished he handled that differently. By all accounts he is a nice guy. It certainly didn't seem like he was good at playing the villain.

I don't think there is anything wrong with his leaving Cleveland to join a great team. He played there for seven years, carrying the entire team the whole time! And it is not like Miami and Cleveland are bitter rivals. So, all in all he's just a good basketball player.

I should say that I think it will be difficult for him to become a hero on the Heat. When you are expected to win because of an incredible combination of players you shouldn't be called a hero. He could have been a hero if he brought a championship to Cleveland.

[Benevolent Thomas]

Like him or not, he just got named the MVP.

[Ad Infinitum]

Nothing can be done in professional athletics that could make anyone a hero.

Maybe a NASCAR driver pulling a rival out of a burning car, but then we open up a whole new debate as to whether or not NASCAR is a sport.

I'll end that debate right here: No. It is not.

[Aersoldorf]

Jun 22, 2012 3:31:41 GMT -5 Ad Infinitum said:

Nothing can be done in professional athletics that could make anyone a hero.

Maybe a NASCAR driver pulling a rival out of a burning car, but then we open up a whole new debate as to whether or not NASCAR is a sport.

I'll end that debate right here: No. It is not.

Holy cow, I'm actually inclined to agree with you on that one ;D

[New Rogernomics]

Seems like a good player, so I am not really bothered by this, but I am not into sports so can't really understand how angry people can get over a sports game.

[Adatca]

I teetered between Overpaid Clown and Who Cares. Overpaid Clown won out because this Overpaid Clown is possibly a bad influence on young generation by the whole "I've got mine" mentality. Not enough to be a villain though because there are many others that would fit that description quite better (Big Ben of the Steelers, and Vick the dog fighters of the Atlanta Falcons are two that I can think of off hand)

[CPrice91]

I think he is a really, really good basketball player who happened to get some really poor advice regarding how to go about his leaving Cleveland.

Foolish, at times, sure (and who isn't at one point or another?) - but not a villain.

Jun 10, 2012 4:17:02 GMT -5 Heraldic Alliance said:

He is a villain of the people. He is nothing more than a symbol of everything that is wrong in society today. He based his decision to go to Miami on money and where he thought he could get the most glory (NBA championships) for the smallest amount of work. He knew he could never do it by himself so he orchestrated an alliance of 3 like minded all-stars to do it with him.

Emphasis added.

Whoa, wait - He took significantly less money to go to Miami; how then was his decision based on money?

And with the glory part one could argue he's getting less glory by splitting it amongst 2 other all-stars. I won't put up much of a fight for this one, but just sayin'

[Byzesion]

Well, on the one hand, he has an entire city baying for his blood.

On the other hand, that city is Cleveland. (I keed, I keed.)

I don't really watch basketball (in fact, I haven't since the late nineties), but from what I've absorbed from the collective consciousness he strikes me as cocky but talented, or in other words, (almost) every football player to gain national fame.

[New Ecopia]

idk if he is a villain or a hero.

[Takaram]

He's a person, so neither.

[Firstaria]

Wait, are we ACTUALLY discussing about this? About a superstar who just decided to screw his team because the other contract had more money???



Ok, let's call all my love for sports to answer this, and say that the guy has the liberty to decide where to go no matter what. I actually have a similar Italian example, but it will require to explain you all the Italian 2010 soccer season, and you are not interested.

Point is: they can go wherever they like. There are 2 types of players about contracts in the sports; symbols and big shots. Symbols are like Diego Armando Maradona, one of the most famous Argentine soccer player, who decided to play in a 2-rate society like my Naples, and it DESTROYED Italian championships for 3 years before retiring. People today still rever him as a demi-god of soccer, and with his feet he could have gone EVERYWHERE, but he remained in Naples (maybe for not so noble reason, but still he didn't need the club to mantain those). Today symbol could be Messi, but we still have to see if he would not become a big shot.
Big shots are people exceptionally good that sell this talent to the best offer, and you should not get angry if a big shot...acts like a big shot. Here we have a big shot. Period. If people of Cleveland can't go over it, they are the IDIOTS.



And now that my energy of love for the sports is over let me say this....hero? villain? SERIOUSLY? All the guy does is putting a ball in a circular ring, people should not get so angry to make a debate about shit like that!!! Hell, and I'm Italian, we have Christian-Soccer as a religion. If Jesus would have crossed a ball in his life, church attendance for us would be 110%.

[Byzesion]

I assume the extra 10% accounts for people who would go to both the early and late sermons.

[Firstaria]

Oct 14, 2012 15:41:08 GMT -5 Byzesion said:

I assume the extra 10% accounts for people who would go to both the early and late sermons.

No, it was a typo, but what you said is probably true ;D.

[Sammaditthi]

I really don't care. I like watching the best play, and he IS the best right now. I have no opinion on his personal decisions.