I don't begrudge players for asking out after a decade or more, especially if they've won a title there and it's only a one off type thing.
My issue with LeBron is he's spent 16 years trying to manipulate rosters and stack things in his favor while team hopping every few years to try to reach Jordan, that's orders of magnitude worse than someone like Kobe or Giannis asking out once after 10+ years. I don't think it's the "easy way out" either unless they're constantly doing it every 2-4 years.
Yeah, I mean, I’m not specifically addressing whether Kobe was being a little hypocritical or not but James draws the ire of fans because he’s been a mercenary his entire career and always been someone who needed to go find better teammates to win. He himself is one of the losingest big stars the league has ever seen.
It’s far different than putting in a decade, winning, and then considering asking out.
It’s also not about a realization of “needing better teammates.” That’s a reality we can all acknowledge: Jordan didn’t win till he had Pippen, the Showtime Lakers were stacked, the Celtics were full of talent, etc.
And if LeBron had spent forever in Cleveland no one would have begrudged him asking out after 10-12 years.
It’s that he was constantly seeking better situations. He left Cleveland basically as soon as he realized they were stuck. And after they had bent over backwards and basically made him the GM, he assembled that crap team that couldn’t get over the hump, then, with no assets and no cap space after they tried to placate him, he ditched them. After HE failed to lead them and HE failed to pick the right pieces around him.
Then he orchestrated a super team by a level of collusion that would be illegal for teams to engage in themselves, with the express goal of competitive imbalance so egregious that they were joking about it at the press conference (“not one, not two, not three…”).
Then he bailed on Miami as soon as they were used up and did it again for his return to Cleveland. Then he ran into hard times there getting past the Warriors so he orchestrated one more escape to the glitz of LA, a move with the dual designs of manufacturing more unstoppable talent advantages and also basically glorifying himself further because how could he go his career without playing for the NBA’s marquee franchise? It’s like playing for the Lakers was a notch on his bedpost just like how he said Miami was like his time “going away to college like he never had the opportunity to do.” What a self indulgent delusional piece of shit.
And at every one of these stops he never could help himself from trying to recruit all his buddies and fellow superstars. It’s pathetic. It’s completely orchestrated to ruin the integrity of competition.
Way different than anything any other Superstar before him ever did and it ruined the sport.
Now that’s how they all think and the game sucks.
