LeBron James just can’t stop talking and because of this he continues to cause trouble for himself.
He couldn’t stop talking during an interview with USA Today in 2005 when he displayed his massive ego for all the world to see by stating**: **“Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been the best player. I love being a leader, and I love being the best. I just want to get better. It’s not about being cocky or selfish or anything like that. It’s just how I am.”
He couldn’t stop talking in May of 2009 when he declared after losing to the Orlando Magic in the playoffs and refusing to shake hands post-game: *“It’s hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them,” he said. “I’m a winner.” *
He couldn’t stop talking when he claimed this past May after tanking game five against the Celtics: *“I spoil a lot of people with my play.” *
He couldn’t even stay silent when asked about playing on Christmas this year, proclaiming to the Associated Press*: “The fans, we always say it’s good for the fans,” James said. “But the fans get an opportunity to see us all year. We’ve got TV games all year. We’ve got a TV game on Thursday (in Phoenix). I don’t care for it too much.”*
So why in the world would we think that LeBron James would quit talking now?
Apparently James has an opinion about everything NBA-related and now thinks it would be a fabulous idea for the NBA to contract teams.
Good of you to make such a decision, LeBron.
Here are a few of his remarks on the matter via Yahoo! Sports:
“How can it be bad for basketball when you have guys who want to win playing on the same team?” he said. “Hopefully, the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the ’80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team. The league was great. It wasn’t as watered down as it is.”
“We had more (star) players on the team, which made almost every game anticipated, not just the Christmas Day game or the Halloween game, things like that,” James said.
James also said it would be better for the league if some of the good players on bad teams were able to play for more successful teams.
“It’s not my job; I’m a player, but that is why the league was so great,” James said. “Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the (league). Looking at some of the teams that aren’t that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren’t that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good.
“I’m not saying let’s take New Jersey and let’s take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I’m not stupid, it would be great for the league.”
You know what, LeBron? You just made a serious case for the owners in future labor talks and effectively betrayed your fellow NBA players in the process.
Doesn’t James understand that by aligning himself with David Stern and the owners that he’s essentially undercut the players union and is now advocating to reduce the number of jobs for NBA players? Care to volunteer part of your future pay for the unemployed, LeBron?
Of course not.
Think about this scenario for a second: You are an average employee at a retail sales outlet fighting to hold a job in an underperforming store where the manager sits in his office all day drinking club soda and flirts with the brunette cashier he just hired instead of working on employee evaluations or sales techniques. You hear via the usual gossip pipeline that an extraordinary performer from a store within your state who holds tremendous leverage with company executives has suggested to them that there are simply too many stores in existence and they should condense them down and relocate all the superstar salesmen from underperforming stores to locations with other top performers, thereby causing you to lose your job.
That particular employee probably didn’t think twice about your job security or family. How do you think you’d feel?
This is not about money - we already know the players and owners are filthy rich and it’s ridiculous how much squabbling is taking place.
But LeBron needed to keep his mouth shut on this matter at this time. He essentially betrayed his peers by running off at the mouth, which is no laughing matter.
As an excellent former-manager of mine once told me*: You can screw with a person’s hours. You can screw with their responsibilities. You can even screw with their job location. But you DO NOT screw with their money!”*
Not only that, his comments about the NBA being “watered down” just don’t hold any… water?
I’ll be the first to admit that I loved basketball in the 1980’s and sometimes wish we could go back to that style of play. That does not mean I think the NBA would be better off eliminating teams to allow stars to operate on the same squads.
I know that LeBron thinks that in a perfect world you just leave your beloved fan-base via free-agency, join up with a bunch of your buddies, and everything turns out just peachy as your new team flaunts it’s talents on the biggest of holidays and you can host star-studded parties in every city on the road.
It just doesn’t work that way for everyone else, LeBron. It might be nice to actually win something too, right?
I can’t understand his reasoning that the NBA would be more competitive by contraction, by the way. For instance, in 1986 there were 23 teams in existence and just six of those teams won fifty games or more.
Last season? Out of thirty teams twelve reached the fifty-win plateau.
Also, in that same 1986 season there were really only two truly elite teams (Boston and Los Angeles) as the 76ers were in decline, the Rockets were young and upset the Lakers in the playoffs, and the Bucks weren’t going anywhere despite their 57 wins. The 76ers, with a young Charles Barkley and veterans Moses Malone, Maurice Cheeks, and Julius Erving, won 54 games but were caught between rebuilding and contending due to the age of their roster. They would win just 45 and 36 games the next two years, respectively.
Furthermore, just Boston and L.A. could truly claim having three superstars on their roster at that time. As stated above, the 76ers were on a steep decline and the fifty-seven win Bucks had Terry Cummings and… Ricky Pierce?!
This season you have the Celtics, Spurs, Lakers, Heat, Mavericks, and a host of other teams that have legit chances of pulling off upsets when the postseason arrives. You also have a plethora of squads boasting several top-tier players on their rosters.
I definitely don’t think the NBA needs to contract teams - I think the NBA needs general managers and owners who make far better decisions in the draft, via trades, and free-agency. Contraction wouldn’t solve an executive’s ignorance on personnel matters, I’m afraid.
LeBron is certainly entitled to his opinion but he essentially spoke out against his current employer (the players union) just as they are entering an incredibly difficult negotiation phase.
** **What should you do, LeBron? How about learn to keep your trap shut on the important issues that could negatively affect the future of your peers.
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