Trust me, the world doesn't really rate Lebron as a top 3 or top 5 player. Only the youth does, because they're parroting US media, considering them experts and all that. And I'm referring to the clown media, the Nick Wrights, that NFL dude that blabs about Lebron all the time and the previous version of Stephen A Smith who was holding Lebron's dick for 10 years calling him the best. And the media that lives off the NBA, because they cannot really deviate much from the narrative.
European basketball fans (ie the people who follow the local basketball), as opposed to European based NBA fans, don't rate Lebron as high as their American counterparts do.
Lebron has an astonishing longevity, but he'll always be the guy that sucks at fundamentals (which is key here, even our 8 years old know how to play basketball more properly than the guy), the guy that always travels, the crybaby that whines at refs just because someone got the ball from him, the guy who had to team up with MVP and all star calibre players in order to win, and still managed to choke most of those attempts, the guy who dominated the easiest conference in the history of the NBA and the guy who led the USA to a bronze medal back in 2006 when he was allegedly becoming the new face of the NBA as opposed to Kobe and Duncan (discarded globally due to the 2004 failure), only to be bailed out in 2008 by none other than Kobe. And now he's gotten bailed out by Steph Curry, only after Durant and Melo bailed him out in 2012...
That's what the world thinks. No one considers the NBA a real competition in the last 15 years anyway apart from a few diehards, like the WWE crowd. Similar concept anyway... Oh, and let's not ignore that Lebron's teams got 4 championships, one in the covid bubble and another in a lockout season, asterisks all over. (Duncan also has a lockout title in 99)
And due to Lebron's longevity, he managed to play in the era of Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant as well as the era of Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. He hasn't really succeeded in overcoming any of them. And that's what the world sees, they don't see IG, Facebook, or US media sections. I'm in Paris and the NBA store is in my neighborhood here and what they've been promoting at the entrance were the jerseys of Wemby (obviously), Giannis (for some reason he's beloved here), Curry and Jordan's US jersey. There used to be a Lebron Lakers jersey when they opened iirc but they put up Wembyamba's there. And Lebron's jersey has been on sale for weeks apparently.
I'm only interested in their retro shit anyway.
I watched the game with someone who's clueless on the NBA but has heard of a few names and thought Lebron was the man, he asked me if everyone else on the team is on board with them as leader etc, before the game. I said, it's Curry and Durant that are the leaders, but I'm pretty sure Lebron is respected by all. Then, after being speechless in the final moments, he tells me "this Curry guy is the best player in the NBA, right?"
As I said many times, Lebron doesn't have iconic moments when it matters. He has that monster block in 2016, but it was Kyrie who got the win. Sure, Paxson and Kerr for MJ, but there's so many more and it's not like he wasn't involved in those ones. Everyone gets it's a team game.
Ray Allen has the most iconic shot in Lebron's career and that came after a Lebron miss, a Bosh rebound & assist. If you don't have these and all you have to show is some winners vs Washington where he was clearly traveling, you ain't got much. And the world doesn't care about stats. That's for internal consumption and even the people who used to love the NBA stopped caring because of how easy it is it stat pad.
Anyway, rant over. You'll get that feeling once it's all said and done. The Kobephiles have resurfaced and are laughing off the comparisons and I don't even think Kobe is a top 10 player of all time. Marginal consideration, that's it. And that's where I rate Lebron as well, but if I had to pick several players and had to officiate a game as it should, he's not getting picked any time soon.
P.S: The American younger generation is already dismissing the poor guy if this is anything to go about
Btw last couple of years content on exposing Lebron media hype is growing at a lovely rate. And lots of it is high quality!
10 years of FIF
Most Diverse Poster
#caseclosed
