I remember watching a clip of the first NBA game Lebron James ever played in. And if I remember correctly, it was in Sacramento.
Before the game he was on the court stretching, and there was like a circle of cameras around him. You know, the media was more interested in this rookie than the established vets on the court. And back in those days the Kings had a couple of stars on their team - still do, I guess.
But anyway, the television announcer said something that I will never forget. What he said was something like 'never in the history of sports has there been so much anticipation around the arrival of a rookie'. In other words, Lebron James was the most-popular and respected rookie in any sport ever, i.e. a professional athlete who was famous even before hitting the big leagues. And that fame wasn't a result of his looks or personality. Rather it was because he's a damn good and highly-athletic basketball player. But with these gifts, especially in the post-Jordan era, also came the pressure of winning championships.
Now if you or I were to make the NBA, that would be considered a major accomplishment in and of itself. In fact if you ever watch those post-draft interviews, it's like every player always says the same thing - 'I feel so blessed to have made it to the NBA.' I'm sure Lebron himself said some shit like that when he was drafted. And it's true - even for these dudes who basketball scouts have been dickridin from their early teens and sometimes even prior to that, there's no guarantee they'll make it to the NBA. Being a basketball star in high school or even college doesn't guarantee that you will be drafted and make an NBA squad. And if you don't believe me, just respectively ask the likes of Lenny Cooke or Victor Page.
So now, we had this teenager coming into the NBA being expected to eventually yet expeditiously win a championship. Now I don't know how old you are reading this post, but that's a lot of pressure to put on a kid - or anybody for that matter. And part of the reason is because when it comes to competing in professional team sports, there's so many variables which are simply outside of a single player's control.
So basically, it's like you have this dude making tens of millions a dollar a year and playing so well that he leads the 2006-07 Cavs, which has to be the most-mediocre roster to ever make the NBA Finals, to the big dance. But still, he's being told that despite unanimously being considered one of the best players in NBA history, if he doesn't win a championship then he's a failure. And remember, Lebron was more or less a kid at the time. So who can blame him for becoming engulfed by the Mamba mentality and transforming into a feen?
Back in the days you could team Lebron with just about any pair of superstars - Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh or Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love - and expect a championship (though that latter Cavs' team had a pretty good roster overall). But last season - for the first in his career really - LBJ showed signs of mortality. So even though now he has AD and Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony on his team, nothing is to be taken for granted. In fact I would venture to say that last postseason's Lakers, even with AD injured, if it were 2007 Lebron he still could have taken that half-assed team to the Finals (if they were in the East).
And the reason I'm bringing all of this up is that, even though the Lakers recently won the championship in the bubble, I believe that Lebron would be better off at this very moment if he hadn't gutted the roster of the team when he first came over. In fact if I remember correctly, the original plan was for him to serve as a superstar mentor to the likes of Julius Randle, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart and for the squad to become contenders more gradually. I mean the Lakers weren't winning back then, but they put together a promising core nonetheless. And Lebron would be better to have those dudes around him right now as opposed to Carmelo and them. And that's taking nothing away from AD and Westbrook, who are still amongst the most-productive players despite being tenured vets. But the point is that it is that feen mentality that always has Lebron superteaming and consequently fuckin up the rosters of teams he plays on. However the problem is that now, even he is not as good as he used to be, so a new strategy needs to be adopted.
CONCLUSION
Truth be told, the Lakers are my sentimental favorites to win the championship. But I'd be lying if I said I actually believe they're going to accomplish that goal. That is not to say I would be surprised if they did so, but there's better teams out there than L.A.
If Lebron had actually stuck to the plan to tough it out with the young Lakers' core he was met with when he came out West, right now, when you look at the development since then of players like Ingram and Randle, they would now perhaps be the best team in the NBA. But instead, being a feen and all, Lebron's like flipping rosters every season. And King James, as great of a player as he is, may not be good enough to pull that shit off anymore. So it's like is he a feen? Yes. But it would appear that he was forced to adopt such a mindframe, in the name of winning championships and getting critics off his back. And you know how they say - old habits are hard to break.
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