Lebron James: Most Talented Superstar or Most Selfish Superstar

Lebron James just posted a brand-new stat to the NBA record books. No other player in the entire history of the National Basketball Association has ever done what James just did.

I am not a fan of James. I am very impressed with his talent and what he has been able to do in his professional career. I just have a real hard time getting past his attitude that always feels like an ego issue to me. It may be just great self-confidence but looks like and feels like a big-headed ego. I wanted to give my bias with him straight out front.

James was one of the last players to come straight out of high school and jump into the NBA and ready for the longer faster game. Very few players have been able to keep up with the NBA schedule in their rookie year. In fact, he played in 79 games that year and averaged 39.5 minutes per game. Clearly, he took right to the grueling schedule of professional basketball rather well. Now in his 17^th season, he only had one year where he played all 82 regular season games, so 79 games as an eighteen-year-old rookie, that’s not too bad.

When conversations of the greatest basketball players come up in any bar, or home, James is sure to be an early name mentioned, right along with Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and… well you get the idea. James has a very long list of awards, titles, and records, and at only 35 years old, still has a few more years of playing and will add to that list. He will most likely become the player who scored the most points ever. currently he sits at #4 on this list with no other active players above him, or anywhere near his point totals.

Okay, so what did he just do that no over player has done, ever? He posted a Triple Double, 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. You maybe thinking, that is not that impressive when it seems almost every night in the NBA some player is posting a stat line like that. And you would be right. What is special about this Triple Double, is it means that Lebron James is the first and only player to ever post a Triple Double against all 30 teams. He won’t be the last, but he can say he was the first.

So, the question is, how do you get to the place of being able to post 86 career Triple Doubles (and still growing)? Is it that your team is just not that good and you must be driving all parts of the game? Are you just so talented that you have the ability to be the lead in each aspect of the game better than those on your team? Or are you so hyper focused on doing everything to win, that you don’t allow the rest of your team to play their role?

I think the reality of why James has had the Triple Double success that he has had, is probably a little of all of that. He is arguably the best most decorated player in history that is on the court today. Someone, currently playing may overtake it, but they are far from him now. But at times, he has been on a team that wasn’t good, AT ALL. Giving him the chance to be the it guy and carry the team. He has been the guy on the team who is just so talented that my nature of the game, no one could stop him. And at times, he has just taken the game in his own hands and carried his team whether they wanted it or not.

For me, I have a hard time liking James because he is so celebrated. I also feel that he will just take over a game and only use his teammates as pawns, instead of as actual teammates. I never liked it when my hometown team played against Michael Jordan because he was also just a great player. But I have much more respect for Jordan because he used his team, he made his team better. I don’t see that with James. What I see is James is all about James, and if you don’t bow to the King, then the King will just do what the King wants.

I know, there are probably a lot of Lebron James fans out there that disagree with me, and that is fine. I have no issue with being wrong. I don’t know the guy, so all I can do is look at how he plays the games. And what I see of how he plays, tells me that his nickname has truly gone to his head. I have watched the NBA over four different decades, I played the game enough to have a pretty fair understanding of how best to play. And I’ve watched a lot of All-Stars and Superstars, Hall of Famers, and other greats whose careers were forced to end way to early to be any of those. In all of that I can see greatness, and I can see selfishness. I can see those who coach and build, and those who don’t.

If you are on the James train, enjoy your ride, I’m sure he has another ring in his future, but for me, he will always be just a little too selfish and if I were the GM of a team, I would pass on signing him and would instead build a team. My team is full of great young men, and right now we are losing, A LOT, but they are a team together, and I can be proud of them.

Thanks for reading.