It's so difficult to root for LeBron James


LeBron James should be beloved by anyone who follows the NBA.

On the court, he is the consummate team player, always making the smart play and is dominate the entire time he is on the court.

He’s a once-in-a-generation type athlete and the best player in the NBA today.

He has carried a team that has suffered, what should be, crippling injuries to the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history and has taken himself there for a fifth consecutive year: The first non-Celtic to do so.

So far in the playoffs, LeBron is averaging 27.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game.

He is the entire package for 48 minutes.

Then he opens his mouth and it all goes up in powder similar to his pre-game ritual.

“When I made my decision to come back to this city I knew what I wanted to do and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said James after completing the sweep of the Atlanta Hawks. “It would take a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication and it is going to be the toughest task for me to try to get this team back to the finals.”

If you were to drink each time LeBron said the words “I” or “me,” well, lets just say you wouldn’t be able to finish this article, or drive a car for that matter.

He continues his presser reflecting, rather reminiscing, on his two week sabbatical during the middle of the season.

“To be able to sit at one point during the season and see us at 19-20 and watch my team struggle, me sitting out two weeks. They wanted coach Blatt fired. Saying we need another point guard. Will LeBron and Kyrie be able to play together? So many story lines was just happening at that point and time and for us to be sitting at this point today, being able to represent the Eastern Conference in The Finals, is special, very special.”

This is the latest in a laundry list of reasons why people cannot bring themselves to root for LeBron James.

He just makes it so dang hard.

Talking about himself and taking games off just rubs fans the wrong way.

What made Bird, Jordan and Kobe special was their killer instinct. The ability to not just beat a team, but stomp of its throat.

They were jerks on the court.

James seems to be jerk, or at least does jerk-like things, off of it.

In his defense, I guess that is to expected when you are dubbed "The Chosen One" the minute you pick up a basketball.

LeBron is probably the nicest one of the bunch off the court when talking about Kobe, MJ and Bird, which is to his detriment. He’s too nice.

In Game 6 of the 2012 East Finals, it seemed like he was turning the corner scoring 45 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and fully embracing the villain role as a member of the Miami Heat.

It’s just not him, though.

He is too concerned about his legacy than actually winning basketball games, which, ironically, is the only thing he really needs to do to cement anything in basketball history: win.

But nope, he’d rather play-up an injury, recreating his own version of Jordan's “Flu Game,” and fall to his knees after each win.

Fans see through it. Maybe not in Cleveland, but everywhere they do. Fans gravitate to the players who play down an injury, like Jordan did when he scored 38 in the Flu Game, rather than the opposite. 

Whether it be this year or sometime in the future, LeBron will win a championship in Cleveland catapulting his legacy to even higher proportions and make no mistake about it: LeBron James is great to watch on a basketball court.

He is already and all-time great player, but it seems like he will never be embraced, by the entire basketball community like the Bird’s, Kobe’s’ and Jordan’s are.

And in all honestly, he was probably doomed from the start.

Photo credit: Getty Images

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