So the guy went to play for Miami. This kind of shit happens all the time in sports. So what's the big deal?
I'm just not getting it.
http://i.imgur.com/UCA1d.jpg
I'm just not getting it.
http://i.imgur.com/UCA1d.jpg
Why the LeBron James Hate?
- Thread starter Digitali
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I would imagine it was because he devoted an hour-long television special to his decision, when he knew the decision would disappoint his fans.
That's just me, though.
That's just me, though.
When I was driving home from Florida I got tired of my CD and tried flipping through the stations. All the goddam talk shows were talking about this guy. I don't give a rat's ass. I finally found an NPR station ... and they were fucking talking about LeBron James too! Jesus Christ!
What I got out of it is apparently everyone in Ohio was depending on him carrying the team to the superbowl or some shit. He goes, their chances go with him. I say, good. And I hope Miami never wins, either. I want everyone's favorite team to never make it to a championship, and most of the time, most of them never do. Especially the Patriots.
What I got out of it is apparently everyone in Ohio was depending on him carrying the team to the superbowl or some shit. He goes, their chances go with him. I say, good. And I hope Miami never wins, either. I want everyone's favorite team to never make it to a championship, and most of the time, most of them never do. Especially the Patriots.
Ninkendo":232bqu4y said:
Exactly. most people who 'do this all the time' don't make a big show of it. even if they are close to the fame level of LeBron, they just do a regular old press conference.
Ninkendo":236og960 said:
I think that this is the right answer - he had people that were fans of his and he basically completely burned that bridge in the way he went about doing things.
Clint":1knit00u said:
Unless they move to Baltimore. Boy, did that ever not get tiring to hear around the office all the goddam time a few years ago. At least our baseball team is horrendous. I went to one of the games last year, down at the ... stadium. Blanking on the name, where the Orioles play. Saw a lot of banners hanging up, and noticed with increasing amusement they were all from twenty years ago, not much of anything more recent than that. Best part of the game was listening to the fans drunkenly yell at each other.
Was watching a Twins game on TV when they were playing Baltimore recently. Camden Yards was almost empty but it was obvious that the home crowd was vastly outnumbered by touring Twins fans. There were cheers for every Twins hit and run, plus MVP and Koooooooooob chants for Delmon Young and Jason Kubel.Duodecimal":2k09r1bg said:
The crowd was almost completely silent when the Orioles were hitting. Unless an Oriole struck out. Then there were cheers for the Twins pitcher.
Cleveland sports fans have a lot to be peeved about (even beyond living in one of the sorriest cities in the country).
Art Modell moved the entire Browns team to Baltimore overnight. Surprise, Cleveland! They'd be the Baltimore Browns today and there would be no Cleveland NFL team had the league not stepped in due to overwhelming uproar over that weasel move. As it was, the team did not exist for three seasons.
The Orioles play at Camden Yards which is a gorgeous ball park.
Art Modell moved the entire Browns team to Baltimore overnight. Surprise, Cleveland! They'd be the Baltimore Browns today and there would be no Cleveland NFL team had the league not stepped in due to overwhelming uproar over that weasel move. As it was, the team did not exist for three seasons.
The Orioles play at Camden Yards which is a gorgeous ball park.
At least they have pro sports in their city.Clint":2bzold9v said:
Actually, I don't want my tax dollars to pay for pros to come here, you can keep them.
bgirl":11uoz63a said:
Yeah the show was the biggest prick move in sports that I have ever "witnessed". It's funny before the show his popularity amoung the general sports public was huge, like 60+%, like pre-my wife beat me up and caused me to wreck the car as I fled from her-Tiger Woods Popular. Now his popularity is like half of that, like I don't know.. the level where A-Rod goes, wow that guy is pretty disliked. Like Tyson I eat peoples ears when I box and rape people disliked territory.
That "special" was indeed "special" in the bad way, and for somebody with that amount of money, and that many people who are supposed to watch out for his image, it was horrid.
A Cavs fan might be able to explain it better, but it was my understanding that he never gave the Cleveland organization a real chance to negotiate. He basically made up his mind to leave for a bigger city and not let them retain him.
Usually when a big player moves among teams, it's due to much larger contracts and/or bad blood with the organization. It seems like Lebron was still on good terms and Cleveland was willing to offer decent money - basically Lebron wanted a bigger spotlight to shine in and a team that had more superstars.
Usually when a big player moves among teams, it's due to much larger contracts and/or bad blood with the organization. It seems like Lebron was still on good terms and Cleveland was willing to offer decent money - basically Lebron wanted a bigger spotlight to shine in and a team that had more superstars.
That actually puts it into words quite eloquently.
LeBron James turned himself from a before-the-fall Tiger Woods into an after-the-Yankees-contract-holdout-and-roids Alex Rodriguez.
That takes effort.
edit:
LeBron James turned himself from a before-the-fall Tiger Woods into an after-the-Yankees-contract-holdout-and-roids Alex Rodriguez.
That takes effort.
edit:
The problem isn't that he left, it's the way he left. Sure, a number of fans would have been angry at him for leaving anyways but LeBron took the time to piss in everyone's face on his way out the door.Rold Gold":1hh1g3w8 said:
Rold Gold":2z5onfg6 said:
And I still would have been a fan of his if that's all he did. People have the right to go where they want to, to work. There is nothing wrong with that, it's being a jackass about it that will cause problems. I mean, yeah, he had decided he was "taking his talents to South Beach" long ago, so really what was the point to string the Cavs along by negotiating with them? He knew what they were going offer. Max deal, Max Years. He knew what they would agree to. Anything he wanted. The problem was they were still the Cavs. He didn't want to play there. If you don't want to be there, you don't want to be there. They couldn't suddenly make him an offer and have themselves not be the Cavs.
It's like when you know that you no longer want to be with your girlfriend/boyfriend at all. You don't need to hear them make you a stay with me and I'll do this offer, because you don't want to be with them. Having them make that offer is beyond cruel, because you know already that they can't be what you want and it's not going to work.
So I was fine with him up until then.
Taking out an hour of TV to announce your breakup and how you have already found a much hotter girlfriend and you can't wait to see her again because the two of you are going to have sex all night long was just plain mean.
and it's his home state....you don't have to stay til you die, but you don't exit like that!
It also hurts that the Cavs as an organization did stupid levels of enabling for him while he was there. Letting his friends ride on the team plane, giving his mom seats to away games so she could watch him play, getting one of the players on the team to hook up with his mom so she could get some. I mean ouch.
It was sort of a joke, there are rumors flying around that one of the players was hooking up with Lebron's mom on the side and LBJ found out and was NOT pleased. This matched the melt down of the Celtic series.
I don't like LeBron but to be fair, the elephant in the room is that he's not a winner. The public isn't exactly walking around looking for losers to pick on, but when someone who is not a winner goes ahead and acts like he's the most important thing in the sport -- not gonna end well.
And it's not simply that he "didn't have good enough teammates". You look at his play in the losing playoff series and you see a guy who gave up before it was over. He didn't play through the frustration and disappointment, but instead gave in to it.
And it's not simply that he "didn't have good enough teammates". You look at his play in the losing playoff series and you see a guy who gave up before it was over. He didn't play through the frustration and disappointment, but instead gave in to it.
Clint":kduro4tj said:Hoos":kduro4tj said:
You are joking. Aren't you?
Otherwise: WTF?
Dayum! His mom is ugly.
No wonder he had to get his teammates to give her an assist.
I don't blame LeBron for leaving. He really played hard for years in Cleveland, with the very last games aside. Cleveland's crappy sports history is not his problem and he has no responsibility to them.
Can anyone really blame someone in a Sept-May sport for moving from Cleveland to Miami? I would avoid the winters as well.
I do blame Lebron for the way he left. "The Decison" was one of the worst PR moves in sports history. He went from one of the most liked sports figures to one of the most hated in an hour.
He should have said months before, "I've loved my time in cleveland but it is time for a change of scene."
The elephant in the room that espn refuses to mention but Bill Simmons keeps dropping hits is the DeLonte West story.
Can anyone really blame someone in a Sept-May sport for moving from Cleveland to Miami? I would avoid the winters as well.
I do blame Lebron for the way he left. "The Decison" was one of the worst PR moves in sports history. He went from one of the most liked sports figures to one of the most hated in an hour.
He should have said months before, "I've loved my time in cleveland but it is time for a change of scene."
The elephant in the room that espn refuses to mention but Bill Simmons keeps dropping hits is the DeLonte West story.
The "Mom" angle. That said refering to him as the elephant in the room is all sorts of funny and probably would make him smile.
Is that a real bunny, or a toy? coz it looks like a toy...
Also, no-one in the UK hates LeBron
Someone should tell him that
Also, no-one in the UK hates LeBron
Someone should tell him that 
The dude talked ESPN into an entire show devoted to his own greatness. It was the most blatant self aggrandizement I've ever seen out of an athlete. Had he just decided to leave, signed the contract and twittered his decision like everyone else, no one would have given a fuck.
Rumor has it the three of them made the decision to make this happen back in the Olympics when they played together, which makes the circle jerk Decision garbage that much more douchey.
Rumor has it the three of them made the decision to make this happen back in the Olympics when they played together, which makes the circle jerk Decision garbage that much more douchey.
As a suburban Akron resident (actually, I live about a mile and a half from James' "compound" -- it's just across I-77 from me) I can say those signs are [probably] fake... pretty sure I would've noticed them while driving to work.
I don't really care about basketball in general or the Cavs in particular, but I agree with the other comments that it's not the fact he's leaving but rather the way in which he left. A one-hour TV special to let down your hometown fans? That's... not exactly classy.
Now, you can argue that sure, that one-hour ESPN special raised some money for scholarships, but if he felt that strongly about it he could've just given them some money out of his pocket change -- it's not like the Cavs haven't thrown enough cash at him in the first place.
To be honest though, Cleveland sports franchises have been losing for so long that I'm not sure anyone in the city would know what to do with themselves if they actually won a championship...
I don't really care about basketball in general or the Cavs in particular, but I agree with the other comments that it's not the fact he's leaving but rather the way in which he left. A one-hour TV special to let down your hometown fans? That's... not exactly classy.
Now, you can argue that sure, that one-hour ESPN special raised some money for scholarships, but if he felt that strongly about it he could've just given them some money out of his pocket change -- it's not like the Cavs haven't thrown enough cash at him in the first place.
To be honest though, Cleveland sports franchises have been losing for so long that I'm not sure anyone in the city would know what to do with themselves if they actually won a championship...
Meh, people love to hate just as much as they love to love. I mean, do people loooove him because he's always been such a stand up guy? Or any charity work that he might do? Nope. People loved him because he can block a basketball off the backboard, grab the rebound, drive on the fast break the other way and dunk on someone all within a 10 second timeframe.
He is clearly one of if not the most physically talented player in the NBA today. Cavs fans crying are just sour grapes about losing their one diamond among all the lumps of coal.
Seriously. Should lebron have done it like so many other pro athletes express displeasure? Holding out on a contract? Refusing to show up for practice? Being a cancer in the locker room? Crying to the media about all the teams internal problems? He could have acted like Terrell Owens. Instead, he showed up for work every day, and when his contract was up, he signed a new contract with a new employer. It's debatable whether or not he played his hardest during the last series with the celtics, but 99% of the other games, he worked his ass off. Cleveland basketball would be nothing without lebron.
Lebron is not even my favorite player. Personally, I think he should have gone to the knicks. But then again, Miami does have great weather and chicks in bikinis year round.
He is clearly one of if not the most physically talented player in the NBA today. Cavs fans crying are just sour grapes about losing their one diamond among all the lumps of coal.
Seriously. Should lebron have done it like so many other pro athletes express displeasure? Holding out on a contract? Refusing to show up for practice? Being a cancer in the locker room? Crying to the media about all the teams internal problems? He could have acted like Terrell Owens. Instead, he showed up for work every day, and when his contract was up, he signed a new contract with a new employer. It's debatable whether or not he played his hardest during the last series with the celtics, but 99% of the other games, he worked his ass off. Cleveland basketball would be nothing without lebron.
Lebron is not even my favorite player. Personally, I think he should have gone to the knicks. But then again, Miami does have great weather and chicks in bikinis year round.
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