Why do so many Lakers fans hate LeBron?

[KembaWalker]

The fact that you'd rather your team not win a championship makes me question your fandom. Your hate of a player eclipses your love for your team. Doesn't seem like you're much of a fan tbh.

We get it, you are willing to sacrifice long term team success for a title. A lot of people are not

I have no issue with fans who disagree with the direction their teams choose to go; I can sympathize with Laker fans who were frustrated three years ago when their team switched into win-now mode.

My issue is with supposed fans who actively dislike an actual title their team really won because one guy was part of it. Anyone who wishes they could give back a championship in exchange for an attempt to win a championship hasn't thought through their opinion and is operating on emotion and not reason.

'Why are you giving this trophy back?'

'So I can rebuild and hopefully try to win it someday!'

'...'

I thought the other guy summed it up pretty well. It's like trying to compare your long term amazing relationship with your true love with your childhood sweetheart to a quickie with a cheap sketchy old hooker that is using you for the money. Yeah you might have gotten laid, and if you're a 40 year old virgin like my franchise for example, you'd be totally stoked and take it however you can. But if you're had something better I'm sure it just feels kinda gross.

Tldr I can totally see why legit long time Lakers fans don't want any part of it

[AussieRules]

We get it, you are willing to sacrifice long term team success for a title. A lot of people are not

I have no issue with fans who disagree with the direction their teams choose to go; I can sympathize with Laker fans who were frustrated three years ago when their team switched into win-now mode.

My issue is with supposed fans who actively dislike an actual title their team really won because one guy was part of it. Anyone who wishes they could give back a championship in exchange for an attempt to win a championship hasn't thought through their opinion and is operating on emotion and not reason.

'Why are you giving this trophy back?'

'So I can rebuild and hopefully try to win it someday!'

'...'

I thought the other guy summed it up pretty well. It's like trying to compare your long term amazing relationship with your true love with your childhood sweetheart to a quickie with a cheap sketchy old hooker that is using you for the money. Yeah you might have gotten laid, and if you're a 40 year old virgin like my franchise for example, you'd be totally stoked and take it however you can. But if you're had something better I'm sure it just feels kinda gross.

Tldr I can totally see why legit long time Lakers fans don't want any part of it

This.

[Hello Brooklyn]

The Lakers-LeBron relationship is one of the most bizarre relationship in sports.

Basically most Lakers fans under 35 are just Kobe fans. They love Kobe as much as they love the Lakers. This is at least my experience.

All these Lakers/Kobe fans hated LeBron their whole lives. Because the Kobe v LeBron thing dominated the NBA for so long. So they never liked him. And they never thought they had to.

Then LeBron comes to LA. And now theyre forced to like him. But do they really?

He brought them a Championship. Which brought them great feelings. But the other 3 years have been a disaster.

Point being. I don't think LeBron should have gone to the Lakers. They will never appreciate them.

He could have gone to the Clippers if he really wanted to be in LA. Would have cultivated a fanbase. Brought AD there and won a chip. And been beloved.

[pro24]

I'm a Kobe fan. Kobe had more talent, a more aesthetic game, but in terms of impact on winning, Lebron is clearly better due to his insane combo of speed and strength.

Lebron is a scumbag for all the reasons already mentioned in the thread.

I read the first 6 pages and people haven't mentioned:
1). Lebron very likely faked a hate crime at his property.
2). Lebron peddling sugar drinks and fast foods. His influence has likely killed thousands or shortened the lives of millions of people, especially Blacks, who are more at risk.
3). Lebron inciting violence against police that were in the right that particular time without due process (and of course, not apologizing when proven wrong after putting an innocent in danger).

I was a Laker fan during the Sedale, Cedric days. It didn't matter to me that they were really bad.

Now I'm on a pause till LeBron leaves, I have that much disrespect for him as a human being.

[-Sammy-]

We get it, you are willing to sacrifice long term team success for a title. A lot of people are not

I have no issue with fans who disagree with the direction their teams choose to go; I can sympathize with Laker fans who were frustrated three years ago when their team switched into win-now mode.

My issue is with supposed fans who actively dislike an actual title their team really won because one guy was part of it. Anyone who wishes they could give back a championship in exchange for an attempt to win a championship hasn't thought through their opinion and is operating on emotion and not reason.

'Why are you giving this trophy back?'

'So I can rebuild and hopefully try to win it someday!'

'...'

I thought the other guy summed it up pretty well. It's like trying to compare your long term amazing relationship with your true love with your childhood sweetheart to a quickie with a cheap sketchy old hooker that is using you for the money. Yeah you might have gotten laid, and if you're a 40 year old virgin like my franchise for example, you'd be totally stoked and take it however you can. But if you're had something better I'm sure it just feels kinda gross.

Tldr I can totally see why legit long time Lakers fans don't want any part of it

The analogy breaks down because the value of sex within a marriage and a 'quickie' aren't the same.

If teams built rosters and kept them for a decade, that would be something. But this notion of 'building something', as if each team doesn't add and remove players and coaches and support personnel, change up its playbook and system, make trades, buy players out, etc., etc., in the interest of trying to win a title every year, is disingenuous.

The point is always to win a title; even the teams that know they aren't contenders are (at least in theory) doing everything they can to turn themselves into one, by any means necessary. The romantic ideal of a dynasty where a fanbase gets a 10+-year relationship with a core is alluring, but it's rare and ultimately nonessential to the goal, which is the title.

Indy fans had an 18-year love affair with Reggie Miller; do you think the Miami fans who sit beneath two mercenary banners would trade them for it?

[hoosierdaddy34]

Yeah it’s a weird Kobe/LeBron dynamic. Those two fan bases have gone at it so long that it made for a real awkward dynamic when LeBron joined the Lakers. No matter how much the two players went out of their to support each other when Kobe was alive.

I’m an admin for a Laker Facebook page with over 70k members, and we actually made our group hidden for the first 6 to 9 months after LeBron signed to keep a lot of the LeBron bandwagon guys from joining. So it has kept the conversation pretty civil and really just for old school Laker fans. But once in a while a LeBron guy gets in and starts some crap. But there is clearly a lot of anti-LeBron sentiment in the group after this season and his bringing in Westbrook. He’s catching a ton of flack for that right now. Westbrook is still 60% of the blame but LeBron and the front office are getting the other 40% between them.

[toodles23]

Where are we getting this "LeBron didn't know how to win" nonsense from?

Make no mistake about it, a lot of the things you have said about him in this thread are actually true, but him "not knowing how to win" is complete nonsense. It wouldn't have mattered if LeBron surrounded himself with shooters or not. He needed another all star player on his team and he never had that in Cleveland. Miami didn't teach him how to do anything. He just needed a better supporting cast, that's it. He could've went to Chicago instead and odds are he would've bounced the Heat out of the playoffs on a regular basis.

Not true, and I can point you to the 2011 finals.

Lebron crapped the bed in historic fasion. No other "superstar" in sports history has been shut down and humiliated like lebron was in 2011 by the mavericks. Little JJ Bare and Jason Kidd were shutting him down.

I'm a Heat fan, I know what happened. Riley made Lebron expand his game and learn how to post up correctly. He learned in Miami.

I was originally going to ignore your reply because I know about your anti-LeBron agenda, but my god this is a really bad take.

First off, JJ Barea and Jason Kidd weren't shutting LeBron down. LeBron's jump shot was gone and he knew attacking the paint would be pointless without drawing out Dallas's defense because one of the top rim protecting bigs in the league (Chandler) was down there waiting for him. And because of how Dallas ran their defense, that wasn't going to happen. There's a reason LeBron still managed to shoot 48% from the field despite his subpar PPG average. A lot of people like to claim LeBron wet the bed on offense, but in reality, LeBron was forced to pick his spots and be more selective with his offense, otherwise he'd just be wasting valuable possessions. This is exactly what the Mavericks wanted and it was something Mark Cuban has highlighted multiple times when talking about that series. What was LeBron supposed to do at that point? If his jumper isn't falling, then fair enough. But that doesn't mean at all that Barea and Kidd shut him down. That's just nonsense.

Second, I know for a FACT that you didn't watch the series, because if you did, you would have pointed out his defensive struggles, which, in my opinion, were much worse than his offensive struggles and a bigger reason for Miami losing that series. LeBron at that end did a lot of the same things he did on offense: stand out at the perimeter and watch things playout. We didn't see any of the defensive intensity from him from the previous series against Chicago when he guarded Derrick Rose or the series before that where he guarded Paul Pierce. He was complacent and just sat back waiting for things to happen. Jason Terry's most iconic moment in that series is the huge shot he hit over James in game 5. But what most people don't know is that Terry did that on a regular basis all throughout the series. LeBron just wasn't giving effort at that end because, for whatever reason, he just assumed everyone on Dallas outside of Dirk wasn't worth the effort to care enough about to the point where you need to be air locked on them defensively. I could think of other reasons, but I to this day will continue to criticize his defense, and that reason is the most damning one in my opinion.

Third, posting up wouldn't have saved LeBron in that series (2011). You think the things he did with the weaker OKC defenders was going to work against Dallas? You think he was going to be able to just back down and post up Shawn Marion so easily? Learning a post game isn't the only reason for LeBron playing far better in that series. OKC didn't have the same defensive scheme Dallas did. They were much easier to attack in the paint and they just weren't as in sync on that end as Dallas was. Another important factor is that LeBron was able to find his jumper again. He wasn't lights out from mid range or three or anything of the sort, but he was good enough from that area where he usually made OKC pay every time he shot the ball.

Fourth, and most importantly, even if all of the above is nullified and void... how on earth does any of it prove that LeBron doesn't know how to win? You think LeBron went into that Dallas series suddenly forgetting how to play the game of basketball? You think LeBron's issue was "man, I just don't know how to take it to that next level". Buddy, were you not around when 2007 happened where LeBron carried a much worse team to the finals after scoring 25 straight points against an elite defense? Were you not there when he dropped 45 points in game 7 against an elite Boston Celtics defense? What about the Magic series where he averaged 35 PPG on insane efficiency? LeBron didn't lose in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 because he "didn't know how to win". He lost because he didn't have the supporting cast needed to take him to that next step. Michael Jordan faced the same problem against the Pistons, that doesn't mean he "didn't know how to win". In that case, I guess you can claim he didn't know how to win when he couldn't get past the Magic in 94. LeBron struggled and lost in 2011 because Dallas was a team built and designed to stop a player like LeBron James from dominating, he was lazy on defense and he went cold from deep. That's basically all there is to it. Claiming "he didn't know how to win" is both lazy and simply not true.

Another huge factor is that Lebron, for whatever, reason, put on a bunch of weight when he got to Miami and it massively hampered his quickness and overall effectiveness. He was not by any means the same guy in 2011 as he was in 2009. 2011 is still to this day his career low in terms of his shot attempts at the rim (only 28% of his shots were at the rim that year). I spent that entire season wondering what the **** happened to his first step, and even before the Finals it was easily the worst he looked on offense at any point between 2008 and 2020 (except maybe 2015 when he was playing with a bad back).

The difference in quickness between Cavs Lebron and 2011 Lebron is absolute night and day, watch some highlights from 09 and then 2011 back to back and it's like he aged a dozen years in between. Watching him struggle to anybody off the dribble in that series was absolutely painful.

[-Sammy-]

1). Lebron very likely faked a hate crime at his property.
2). Lebron peddling sugar drinks and fast foods. His influence has likely killed thousands or shortened the lives of millions of people, especially Blacks, who are more at risk.

Regarding the first point, I'm not aware of LeBron faking a hate crime; perhaps you can proffer some evidence to support that accusation.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

Kobe fans

That doesn't explain some Heat fans hating him too, like me.

The reason is simple.

Lebron is the most unlikeable superstar in sports history. He's incredibly fake, manufactured, and selfish. Lebron only cares about Lebron and will use anyone to try and prop himself up.


Even Kobe, with his huge ego, never came out and said "That right there makes me the greatest ever" like Lebron did about the 2016 finals.

Lebron is a never ending factory of cringe.

"Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7...."

He is the BIGGEST front runner I've ever seen in sports. And it's not just about basketball.

Lebron will front run politics if it means it will help his brand. Remember the China thing? Lebron quick to run his mouth on EASY political stances in america, but when it hurts his bottom line $$$$, he defends China.

I can go on and on. His passive aggressive twitter comments, his fake personality, his stat padding, everything.

Man, a lot of people who hated him in Miami were Wade Fans. I'm friends with a Miami fan and couldn't get over the fact it was LeBron's team.

I don't think people understand how great prime Wade was.

I would take prime Wade, circa 2005-2011, before Lebron.

Wade could lead a team to a ring and he proved it, in superhuman fashion in 2006. The series before that, he destroyed the Pistons.

We really did NOT need Lebron. Lebron came down here and stunk up the joint, and Wade had to take a back seat just to cater to "lebron ball"

[toodles23]

That doesn't explain some Heat fans hating him too, like me.

The reason is simple.

Lebron is the most unlikeable superstar in sports history. He's incredibly fake, manufactured, and selfish. Lebron only cares about Lebron and will use anyone to try and prop himself up.


Even Kobe, with his huge ego, never came out and said "That right there makes me the greatest ever" like Lebron did about the 2016 finals.

Lebron is a never ending factory of cringe.

"Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7...."

He is the BIGGEST front runner I've ever seen in sports. And it's not just about basketball.

Lebron will front run politics if it means it will help his brand. Remember the China thing? Lebron quick to run his mouth on EASY political stances in america, but when it hurts his bottom line $$$$, he defends China.

I can go on and on. His passive aggressive twitter comments, his fake personality, his stat padding, everything.

Man, a lot of people who hated him in Miami were Wade Fans. I'm friends with a Miami fan and couldn't get over the fact it was LeBron's team.

I don't think people understand how great prime Wade was.

I would take prime Wade, circa 2005-2011, before Lebron.

Wade could lead a team to a ring and he proved it, in superhuman fashion in 2006. The series before that, he destroyed the Pistons.

We really did NOT need Lebron. Lebron came down here and stunk up the joint, and Wade had to take a back seat just to cater to "lebron ball"

Wade wasn't leading a team to anything after 2011, my dude. His injuries weren't a fluke, it was a direct result of his playstyle. He underperformed in the 2012 playoffs with an injured knee, and in the 2013 playoffs he was a massive liability, tanking the Heat anytime he was on the floor. By 2014 he was a borderline allstar at best even when healthy.

The idea that Wade could lead a championship team after 2011 has no basis in reality whatsoever.

And if you're talking about the 2011 Finals, you have the problem completely backwards - the entire criticism of Lebron was that he took a backseat and was so uninvolved in the offense. At no point was that team hampered by "Lebron ball".

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

We get it, you are willing to sacrifice long term team success for a title. A lot of people are not

I have no issue with fans who disagree with the direction their teams choose to go; I can sympathize with Laker fans who were frustrated three years ago when their team switched into win-now mode.

My issue is with supposed fans who actively dislike an actual title their team really won because one guy was part of it. Anyone who wishes they could give back a championship in exchange for an attempt to win a championship hasn't thought through their opinion and is operating on emotion and not reason.

'Why are you giving this trophy back?'

'So I can rebuild and hopefully try to win it someday!'

'...'

I thought the other guy summed it up pretty well. It's like trying to compare your long term amazing relationship with your true love with your childhood sweetheart to a quickie with a cheap sketchy old hooker that is using you for the money. Yeah you might have gotten laid, and if you're a 40 year old virgin like my franchise for example, you'd be totally stoked and take it however you can. But if you're had something better I'm sure it just feels kinda gross.

Tldr I can totally see why legit long time Lakers fans don't want any part of it

Lebron only care about Lebron. He comes to your team, says all the right things, then trades all your assets and draft picks, maybe gets you 1 ring due to the superteam, and then he bounces after 4 years, leaving your team in shambles.

I want no part of that. I'd rather build a legit team around a superstar who is staying for 10+ years, with a team that is going to compete for a long time. Like Steph Curry with GS. or Giannis with MIL. etc.

[Balls Deep]

Because he lapped their beloved Kobe. It is what it is but that’s the truth.

[-Sammy-]

When Lebron came to Miami, he said a lot of cringe things, including the not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7...... he promised 8 championships.

He didn't promise eight championships; he said he came to Miami to win eight championships. Should he not have wanted to win eight championships?

[thebigbird]

I'm a Kobe fan. Kobe had more talent, a more aesthetic game, but in terms of impact on winning, Lebron is clearly better due to his insane combo of speed and strength.

Lebron is a scumbag for all the reasons already mentioned in the thread.

I read the first 6 pages and people haven't mentioned:
1). Lebron very likely faked a hate crime at his property.
2). Lebron peddling sugar drinks and fast foods. His influence has likely killed thousands or shortened the lives of millions of people, especially Blacks, who are more at risk.
3). Lebron inciting violence against police that were in the right that particular time without due process (and of course, not apologizing when proven wrong after putting an innocent in danger).

I was a Laker fan during the Sedale, Cedric days. It didn't matter to me that they were really bad.

Now I'm on a pause till LeBron leaves, I have that much disrespect for him as a human being.

Lmao you call LeBron a scumbag while stanning for Kobe? That cannot be a serious post. Between the two of them, only one of them was arrested for sexual assault, and only one of them was fined for homophobic slurs. But LeBron is the one you have “that much disrespect for as a human being”? Give me a break.

[falcolombardi]

criticizing police is not inciting violence regardless of the validity of the criticism

there is no way lebron "faked" the rscial slurs painyed at his house why the the **** do you think he would lmao

[Lala870]

I'm a Kobe fan. Kobe had more talent, a more aesthetic game, but in terms of impact on winning, Lebron is clearly better due to his insane combo of speed and strength.

Lebron is a scumbag for all the reasons already mentioned in the thread.

I read the first 6 pages and people haven't mentioned:
1). Lebron very likely faked a hate crime at his property.
2). Lebron peddling sugar drinks and fast foods. His influence has likely killed thousands or shortened the lives of millions of people, especially Blacks, who are more at risk.
3). Lebron inciting violence against police that were in the right that particular time without due process (and of course, not apologizing when proven wrong after putting an innocent in danger).

I was a Laker fan during the Sedale, Cedric days. It didn't matter to me that they were really bad.

Now I'm on a pause till LeBron leaves, I have that much disrespect for him as a human being.

Between the two of them, only one of them was arrested for sexual assault, and only one of them was fined for homophobic slurs.

One of these is not like the other. Sexual assault is clearly pretty severe while everyone up until the 2010's was using 'homophobic" slurs in their daily speech because it was still frowned upon by society at large. Goldfish memory for people i guess.

[Rainwater]

That doesn't explain some Heat fans hating him too, like me.

The reason is simple.

Lebron is the most unlikeable superstar in sports history. He's incredibly fake, manufactured, and selfish. Lebron only cares about Lebron and will use anyone to try and prop himself up.


Even Kobe, with his huge ego, never came out and said "That right there makes me the greatest ever" like Lebron did about the 2016 finals.

Lebron is a never ending factory of cringe.

"Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7...."

He is the BIGGEST front runner I've ever seen in sports. And it's not just about basketball.

Lebron will front run politics if it means it will help his brand. Remember the China thing? Lebron quick to run his mouth on EASY political stances in america, but when it hurts his bottom line $$$$, he defends China.

I can go on and on. His passive aggressive twitter comments, his fake personality, his stat padding, everything.

Man, a lot of people who hated him in Miami were Wade Fans. I'm friends with a Miami fan and couldn't get over the fact it was LeBron's team.

I don't think people understand how great prime Wade was.

I would take prime Wade, circa 2005-2011, before Lebron.

Wade could lead a team to a ring and he proved it, in superhuman fashion in 2006. The series before that, he destroyed the Pistons.

We really did NOT need Lebron. Lebron came down here and stunk up the joint, and Wade had to take a back seat just to cater to "lebron ball"

It's nice to see the hate for LeBron still lives in Wade County, lol.

But all jokes aside Wade revived Miami basketball and was the golden child in Miami. So the hate was expected by Wade fans.

[loserX]

Lebron only care about Lebron. He comes to your team, says all the right things, then trades all your assets and draft picks, maybe gets you 1 ring due to the superteam, and then he bounces after 4 years, leaving your team in shambles.

You know he got you 2 rings, right?

Between this and "LeBron stunk up the joint" I can only assume this is some kind of absurdist performance art.

[Sedale Threatt]

I'm a Kobe fan. Kobe had more talent, a more aesthetic game, but in terms of impact on winning, Lebron is clearly better due to his insane combo of speed and strength.

Lebron is a scumbag for all the reasons already mentioned in the thread.

I read the first 6 pages and people haven't mentioned:
1). Lebron very likely faked a hate crime at his property.
2). Lebron peddling sugar drinks and fast foods. His influence has likely killed thousands or shortened the lives of millions of people, especially Blacks, who are more at risk.
3). Lebron inciting violence against police that were in the right that particular time without due process (and of course, not apologizing when proven wrong after putting an innocent in danger).

I was a Laker fan during the Sedale, Cedric days. It didn't matter to me that they were really bad.

Now I'm on a pause till LeBron leaves, I have that much disrespect for him as a human being.

Between the two of them, only one of them was arrested for sexual assault, and only one of them was fined for homophobic slurs.

One of these is not like the other. Sexual assault is clearly pretty severe while everyone up until the 2010's was using 'homophobic" slurs in their daily speech because it was still frowned upon by society at large. Goldfish memory for people i guess.

lol, everyone? Not only was the term Kobe used most definitely not in my daily rotation, it wasn't in anybody's that I was around regularly. Maybe you hang out with crappy people.

[dockingsched]

Many fans are under some delusion that teams become the “victim” of Lebron and his desire to sacrifice long term assets for a chance to win, something every team hoping to win a title has to do.