LeBron James has put himself in the conversation for one of the best players of all time, and definitely one of the best of his generation. Although he is such a great player, people really love to hate James. Is it just jealousy, or is there something about King James that is so inherently dislikable? This is why we love to hate LeBron James.
“The best in the world”
Perhaps one of the reasons why people love to hate LeBron James is because of his insistence on being called the best in the world. There’s nothing wrong with believing you are the best in the world if that’s what motivates you to play. If that’s what makes LeBron so great on the court, then it’s clearly working.
Where people love to hate on him though is that arrogance. He insists he’s the best in the world and calls himself the MVP, even when he hasn’t had an MVP season. James is also not afraid to flaunt his status and wealth to contribute to his belief of being better than everyone else.
A humble guy?
Can someone who calls themselves the best in the world really also be a humble person? Another reason why people love to hate on James is the fact that he actually comes across as such a nice person, when he’s not bragging.
He is incredibly popular and will do a lot to help out people in less fortunate situations than his own. James is a family man, and there doesn’t really seem to be too many flaws in his character. The fact he’s almost too perfect actually gives people ammunition to criticize him.
His own nickname
Many people have a problem with the fact that James crowned himself ‘King.’ There’s a golden rule when it comes to nicknames, and it’s that you shouldn’t be the one deciding what yours is. Despite people’s dislike toward his nickname, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t live up to it. That just helps to make people dislike him even more though, and it seems at this stage of his career, there is no way for James to win over his haters.
Losing big games
Although James drives his teams on to succeed, when it comes to the big games, he’s considered a choker. James has gotten to the NBA Finals nine times, but only taken home a ring on three occasions. Some people view James as smug whenever he wins, so whenever he loses in the finals, people enjoy seeing him fail. It didn’t matter that his team came up against the Golden State Warriors at the peak of their powers. For the James haters, it was just nice to see him fail.
The Decision
No one is arguing that James wasn’t within his rights to go and seek championship glory with the Miami Heat, but it was how he announced it that made people dislike him. Instead of announcing at a press conference that he’d be joining the Heat as a free agent, he released a one-hour special documentary highlighting his talent.
In this documentary, he announced he’d be leaving for South Beach with his talent. It felt as though James was just rubbing it in the faces of all the loyal Cavs fans that he was the best thing they had and he was leaving. He did redeem himself to the Cavs fans though after coming back to the franchise and helping them to win their first-ever NBA Finals.
LeBron James is one of the best basketball players in the modern era and perhaps the most complete player of all time. He should be loved by everyone, but he’s every basketball fan’s favorite player they love to hate.
