LeBron James...Love Him or Love To Hate Him

The score was 93 to 92 favoring the San Antonio Spurs with 1:18 remaining in the game, LeBron James who scored (35) points and (10) rebounds for the game, turned the corner on Boris Diaw and had a wide open lane with only Tim Duncan from the San Antonio Spurs to remotely obstruct his pathway. It was a sure shot King James moment and it seemed as if Tim Duncan was about to receive a signature Bron-Bron facial that would have him looped on ESPN Sportscenter, and the top play of the week.  LeBron however, made a decisive pass to wide open Chris Bosh who banged a game winning corner three.  A unique segment of basketball’s fan populace would go to bed angry that night and wake up with dread the next day. They would have to go to work and get the business from the LeBron lovers.  Other people would look at their smart phone ominously and await the calls; they would have to eat yesterday’s words. “I told you didn’t I”, they would say.  “Man LeBron went off! did you see that?” 

If you love basketball then there are two things for certain: you either love LeBron James or you love to hate him.  He is one of the most polarizing players in the game, and his every word, deed, and action is scrutinized to the utmost degree, by basketball fans who simply do not like James.  He is arguably the best all- around player in the game and possibly the best team player of the top 10 league leading scorers.  He has taken his Miami Heat team to their fourth consecutive NBA Final and netted two consecutive championships and is currently on the cusp of a third, tied 1-1 and playing in Miami at 8 pm (C.S.T.) tonight. Stealing one from the San Antonio Spurs puts the Miami Heat in an optimal position with home court advantage in their run for their third straight championship title.

Even dead LeBron haters were turning over in their graves.  I conducted a sampling for preparation of this blog and out of 30 individuals who were basketball fans, 16 loved LeBron and 14 loved to hate him.  There was no middle ground; the fans were impassioned on either side, they either loved him like crazy or despised him altogether, which confirmed what I was already thinking.  I asked the fans who did not like him, what were the reasons why they did not like LeBron? The responses were:  that he is arrogant, prideful, selfish, boastful, and there was one one exceptional interviewee who simply said he was ugly when he made” faces” after great plays. 

I didn’t have the same feelings about LeBron after the sweet dish to Chris Bosh with 1:18 to go in the game.  He could have easily climbed the ladder on Duncan, the pass James made and the timing seemed pretty selfless to me.  Heat fans hearts were in their throats, because Bosh missed the same 3 pointer from the exact same spot to close out Game 5 of the Indiana Pacers series, but James believed in Bosh and is showing the basketball world with proof that he is for the total of his mental, physical, and spiritual abilities, “The” best player in the game today.  In the post-game speech a humble LeBron thanked in his words, “the man upstairs” for protecting him from injury and allowing him to just go out and play his game.  The accusations against just don’t seem to fit the information.

LeBron, is the larger image of a truth that we see present in our day to day lives, people who don’t like other people, because they are excelling, or the best in their field. They nit-pick and mull over trivial matters to formulate a reason to dislike someone without a legitimate cause. Hatred is contemporary with our current culture and rather than being congratulators, a broad spectrum of the population are now both open and closet haters.   They want to see the big man knocked down, they relish seeing the big business knocked down, they want whoevers at the top slot to stumble and fall. The condition that haters suffer from, “haterism” is what happens when a lifetime of failures and negative reinforcement reach a crescendo. These persons lives take on a cynical life point of view.   They are victims who have become victimizers.

Whenever I see a man do something amazing I know it is the spirit of God working through that man, that’s what is amazing.  I applaud man, and woman.   God honored man and woman, why shouldn’t I? Great accomplishments have spawned out of the hearts of man and woman.  According to church tradition, the Holy Bible, and the Holy Quran, God made man and instructed all of creation to bow down to him, Lucifer refused, because he felt that he was better than a man.  I presume that makes him an original hater/father of all the people who hate people, because they think they are better.

 Maybe these LeBron haters have legitimate gripes or maybe they have got into the custom of hating the man and continued in it because they are in the routine of it. I encourage all the haters to give the guy a second look; on the court the man is absolutely amazing!  Tonight at tip off the LeBron fans will be looking for another side of the truly astonishing, meanwhile at other locations the LeBron haters will be salting basketballs greatest talent from head to toe as if he were a snail.  The haters can say what they will about LeBron James but his team just keeps on winning.