Lebron James (Los Angeles Lakers)

[kentuckbuck]

i was going to take the time and reply to each part of your rant that you are clearly wrong on but i dont even feel like doing that since this has all been debated for months...but thanks for stiring up the pot again buddy

Good. Next time just ignore it completely as not worth giving him satisfaction you read it.

 

[redguard117]

well, I just joined so I wasn't able to look through each of the 300 pages beforehand. If its going to stir up controversy, I apologize. However, I like to pride myself as a reasoning person, and if someone can give me a good REASON for why to hate Lebron, I will understand and willingly change my perspective. That is how an argument is supposed to work. Its just that every argument I have recieved in the opposite view has not been valid or has been severely flawed. I'm still looking for a good reason; I don't blindly hold on to my views. Until someone provides that, I'll have no reason to believe otherwise.

However, if its going to result in more controversy please don't respond. I don't want to stir up the pot. Like I said, I just joined.

kentuckbuck, you assume that I'm getting satisfaction from my rant. I am genuinely interested in why everyone hates Lebron. If someone gives me a good reason or fact to demonstrate why, I would be more than willing to change my views. That is how a discussion operates; the dissemination of information leads to adaption of psychological schema. I get no satisfaction from my post, I am looking for a good why. I'm not baiting or stirring up the pot for no reason.

 

[osugrad21]

I am genuinely interested in why everyone hates Lebron. If someone gives me a good reason or fact to demonstrate why, I would be more than willing to change my views.

Step #1 is to read what has already been posted over the last 6 months.

The entire debate will play out in your reading. Without that, you are late to the party.

 

[redguard117]

Well, alright. I will do so.

Like I said, I'm interested in information, not baiting or arguing. However, as a perfectly non-biased, neutral observer who was in Cleveland during the decision and for a month afterwards, I didn't see anything wrong happen. I saw a free agent exercise his constitution-granted and NBA admissible right to "pursu[e]" happiness with a different team. We'll see if one of the 300 prior pages can convince me otherwise.

 

[jwinslow]

Like I said, I'm interested in information, not baiting or arguing. However, as a perfectly non-biased, neutral observer who was in Cleveland during the decision and for a month afterwards, I didn't see anything wrong happen. I saw a free agent exercise his constitution-granted and NBA admissible right to "pursu[e]" happiness with a different team. We'll see if one of the 300 prior pages can convince me otherwise.

Labeling it "The Decision" was an obvious insult for Cleveland fans, adding another page in a long line of two word horrors in Cleveland sports history. Lebron and his marketing team have manipulated every ounce of his image (right down to confiscating tapes of him being dunked upon) and signed off on that name.

Lots of star players have left Cleveland for better sports franchises. None have done so in such an intentionally antagonistic manner, both at the time and in the comments afterwards.

His interview talking about how much he grew up hating Cleveland was pretty telling.


The rest has been rehashed to death.

 

[jlb1705]

You know, I don't understand the hate for Lebron. He gave us 7 great years; he was singlehandedly the difference between the best and the worst record in the league. And don't give me that "quitting" talk, he had a triple-double vs Boston. How many other players would get called quitters for posting a triple double.

The fact of the matter is, Gilbert did not want to pay to get better players to surround Lebron with. We could have gotten A'mare, instead we got JJ Hickson. Seriously? Gilbert's interested in making money first, winning second. He knows the best way to do this is to have one superstar player surrounded with a bunch of scrubs. Same as happened with Barkley. Except Lebron was smart and left. If I was in his situation, I would have left too. And no one tell me they would have stayed in his situation; you ALL know that you would have left too.

Fact of the matter is, Gilbert failed to do anything for Lebron while he was here, and so Lebron, as a free agent, who is perfectly entitled to leave, left. If Lebron popped out his knee and could never have played again, do you think the Cavs organization would have signed him to a new contract? Do you think they would have shown him ANY loyalty? Of course not. Its all about money. He, like so many other players, would be out on the streets the next day. "Sorry, but see ya later." So from where does this obligation for Lebron to stay come from? It has to be a 2-way street.

Somehow, people have been brainwashed into always agreeing with the organization over the players. The billionaires over the millionaires. The Cavs organization over Lebron. The owners over the NFLPA. The NBA owners over the NBAPA. When teams become loyal to their players, then players will be loyal to their teams. But since teams feel no obligation to their players, and trade or release them at a whim, players have no obligation to their team after their contract is over.

Sure, root for your team. Root for your players. But taunt and "hate" a player that gave you 7 years of his life for leaving? I heard you guys call him a quitter after the Celtics game, and then I knew he was leaving. Respect the player, not the jersey.

/rant

The only thing NEW that post brought to this thread was this:

Respect the player, not the jersey.

...And that couldn't be more wrong either. If anything, Cleveland fans have learned that at best it's the opposite. The jersey represents the city and the fans more than it represents the players who wear it or the billionaires who own rights to it. When the players or owners fail and leave, the jersey is what's left.

The rest of it...

 

[ysubuck]

Well, alright. I will do so.

Like I said, I'm interested in information, not baiting or arguing. However, as a perfectly non-biased, neutral observer who was in Cleveland during the decision and for a month afterwards, I didn't see anything wrong happen. I saw a free agent exercise his constitution-granted and NBA admissible right to "pursu[e]" happiness with a different team. We'll see if one of the 300 prior pages can convince me otherwise.

So you are a neutral observer and not a Cleveland sports fan?

Ok, as a Cleveland sports fan I'll tell you what he did. He took a shit on every Cavaliers fan in the city. He humiliated the city and the team on national television. Every trade ran through him and every player they brought in ran through him and then be bolted.

He could have recruited players to Cleveland, instead he and Wade went behind the scenes a couple of years ago and decided THEN that he would bolt for Miami.

He quit in the playoffs.

Is that enough of an answer as to why all the hate?

 

[redguard117]

I grew up in Upper Arlington, so no, I am not a Cleveland fan. However, I appreciated what Lebron did for the city.

He did recruit players, but Cleveland was recently voted the "least desirable" city to play in by a player's poll. Its not his fault. How did he take a [Mark May] by leaving? Its his right. Also, since when is a triple double quitting? Furthermore, the Wade allegation has never been proven. You brought up some good points, however, they were not enough to convince me and I feel are tilted by your allegiance. I'll continue to go through and read every other previous page like I said.

jlb, I am not a fan of professional sports. The jersey is a puppet and false symbol propped up by organizations to make money. If the jersey truly represented my city I would care. Instead it represents a business that owes no allegiance to me, and to which I owe no allegiance. This is why I am a college athletics fan, even living in Massachusetts, a haven for pro sports. The college jersey is what matters to me, not the professional jersey. At any moment a pro franchise could relocate, it has NO loyalty to us. It exists to make money. Its like proudly supporting a company, like Intel, just because a plant is located in my state. Agreed, that is not a completely well represented analogy, but its how I feel about it.

I don't want to argue, so lets leave it at that. I'll go back and read what everyone else has said.

 

[colobuck79]

It's probably the same guy.

 

[redguard117]

as...?

 

[jlb1705]

jlb, I am not a fan of professional sports. The jersey is a puppet and false symbol propped up by organizations to make money. If the jersey truly represented my city I would care. Instead it represents a business that owes no allegiance to me, and to which I owe no allegiance. This is why I am a college athletics fan, even living in Massachusetts, a haven for pro sports. The college jersey is what matters to me, not the professional jersey. At any moment a pro franchise could relocate, it has NO loyalty to us. It exists to make money. Its like proudly supporting a company, like Intel, just because a plant is located in my state. Agreed, that is not a completely well represented analogy, but its how I feel about it.

Not in Cleveland. The Browns left, the jersey stayed. As a fan, I root for whoever wears it. When they're gone, my feelings toward that individual are determined in their large part by their disposition toward how they wore it and how they went about leaving.

LeBron left in a distasteful fashion, and what's worse, he we even wore the jersey with disdain while pretending represent the hopes and dreams of Cleveland fans.

Finally, I need to go back to your original post and defend Danny Ferry a bit. The man did everything he could to put a championship team around his star player in Cleveland. Go back and look at the roster the season before Ferry arrived, and look at it last season. It's night and day. He did that in the midst of being short on draft picks because his predecessor gave them away on scrub players, while up against the salary cap and while being held hostage by his star player's free agency. There's a reason - despite his past connections - that he immediately landed on his feet with a model franchise in San Antonio after leaving Cleveland.

 

[y0yoyoin]

Also, since when is a triple double quitting?

you keep referring to this like game 6 was how lebron played for the entire boston series...check game 5 at home when cleveland lost by 32 points...basically losing that game was the series and if you watched that game, where lebron scored 15 points in 41 minutes, then you would know he choked...he didnt quit he choked...even worse...15 points in 41 minuted was his lowest output all year when playing over 40 minutes...i cant even remember the last time, and i refuse to check the stats, of when he played over 40 minutes and had that bad of a game...probably his rookie year...when cleveland and his team needed him the most he choked...so spare me his triple double in game 6, and his 9 turnovers, the guy choked when it mattered the most...and to think i didnt even hate him till july 8th

 

[WolverineMike]

just so you guys know, that isn't me......

 

[redguard117]

jlb:

I like Danny Ferry, and I agree with you about that; the person I don't like is Gilbert.

Well, those are your feelings about lebron jlb, and its clear that neither of us is going to convince the other, so lets leave it at that. I usually stick to college sports anyway (besides the pats), but I felt like defending lebron in this case. We'll agree to disagree.

y0yo:

maybe its just me, but I like to support my players no matter what. Even if they had a bad game one day. Its just a sport, why hate someone over it? Sports should be something to enjoy, and to occasionally get angry over (ie like me when my pats choked last night), not something to hold a grudge over. Maybe I'm being naive, or maybe I'm living in a different context due to the success the pro teams I support have experienced, but thats how I feel about it. Like with jlb, lets agree to disagree

wolverinemike:

so they were referring to you. yes, i am a completely separate person! I dont know how to prove this, besides offering my ip address, but its true

 

[Bleed S & G]

wolverinemike:

so they were referring to you. yes, i am a completely separate person! I dont know how to prove this, besides offering my ip address, but its true

Post your personal email so we can verify you're not one in the same