Dumb Narratives Surrounding LeBron James

LeBron James has been hyped up since before he stepped foot on an NBA floor, and 20 years later, as a 38-year-old, he's still being hyped up. Whether you hate the man or you love him, you gotta admit, it's gonna be sad the day when he's no longer playing in the NBA. I mean, not only has he achieved outrageous success on the basketball court, but he's had an equally impressive off-the-court resume. Here, take a look at the tip of the iceberg. He's a part owner of a soccer team, a part owner of a baseball team, he has a media company that produces movies for HBO and Netflix, he's built a school for kids, sent them to college, and the list can go on and on and on. Somehow, though, when the conversation of LeBron comes up, it's mostly always on some dumb narratives that don't make any sense. And I mean it. It's actually so crazy that I've actually decided to make a whole video on it. Just before we start this video, I just want to let you all know that we listened to your advice and got some sheesh t-shirts. If you want to check them out and support the channel, the link's down below. And without further ado, let's do this. LeBron James, as great as he is, as gifted as he is, was not born with a clutch gene. Not clutch. They're saying that LeBron James ain't clutch. But the players that got that clutch gene... For some reason, there's a narrative surrounding LeBron James that he ain't clutch. I mean, whenever you hear the media talking about LeBron, they often say that he's good for the first 46 minutes of a game, but not the last two minutes because, uh, because he's not quote-unquote clutch. And yeah, honestly, I can create a mixtape of his clutch shots, and that video might be over 10 minutes long because look at this data I got off NBA.com. I went through every year of LeBron's entire career, and out of his 20-year career so far, he's led the league in most clutch points three times and came in second twice. And, uh, I'm not even gonna include all the times that he came in the top 10 because that'd literally be like half his career. So, with these numbers in mind, how the heck can someone call LeBron quote-unquote not clutch? That's basketball blasphemy at its highest. I mean, if you had to be truthful and just look at the pure numbers, he's actually in the conversation as one of the most clutch players of the last two decades for crying out loud. Sheesh, guys. Anyway, next up is the narrative that he can never be the GOAT because he's 4-for-10 in the NBA Finals. Sure, that can be seen as an asterisk on his career, but hey, even Jordan had a few bad asterisks on his resume. For example, did y'all know that MJ got swept twice? In the first round? Yeah. In both 86 and 87 at the hands of Larry Bird in the Boston Celtics, MJ got swept two years in a row. Then, immediately after that, in three consecutive years, he was stopped by a team whose best player was a 6'1 point guard, Isaiah Thomas. Sheesh, guys. Swept two years in a row, then stopped three years in a row by a 6'1 guard? How come no one ever brings these up when discussing who's the GOAT? Anyway, back to LeBron. You know, a reason why he's 4-for-10 in the Finals and not 6-for-10 is because he went up against arguably the best teams in NBA history, the 2017 and 2018 Golden State Warriors. Now, I ain't hatin' on Mike, and I'm not saying that LeBron is better than his heirness, but I'm just pointing out that if you look at every NBA legend, there's always blemishes that you can nitpick. But it just seems that everyone chooses to highlight this aspect of LeBron's career while ignoring the asterisks on everyone else's. Anyway, moving on here. Another narrative surrounding LeBron James is that he quote-unquote doesn't have a bag. Well, he's definitely not a Kyrie Irving or Kobe Bryant when it comes to having a bag, but to say that he does not have a bag is just ridiculous. I mean, just look at some of these. In this play here, he hits a ridiculous high fadeaway where the ball reaches the same height as the shot clock. Then in this play here, after splitting the double team, he spins to avoid the third defender and lays it in. Then check out this play here. In the NBA Finals, he shot fakes the defender into the air, then lobs it off the backboard for an alley-oop to himself. Sheesh, guys. How can anybody say this guy doesn't have a bag? That's just crazy talk. I mean, even at age 38, he's still adding new moves to his repertoire. Because look, I've literally never seen a move like this before, where a player runs along the baseline, then jumps and turns around midair for a fadeaway. Anyway, it is pretty clear that LeBron has an arsenal of moves that he can pull out at any time. He may not have the handles of an Uncle Drew or the footwork of a Black Mamba, but make no mistake, he has a deep bag. Moving on here, another narrative surrounding him is that he needs to move to a team in order to win. I mean, he couldn't win in his first stint with the Cavaliers, so he needed to go to Miami and team up with Wade and Bosh. Then when he couldn't win in Miami anymore, he moved back to the Cavaliers to team up with Kyrie and Love. Then when he couldn't win there anymore, he moved to Los Angeles and traded the whole team away for Anthony Davis. And while these are facts, let me bring up a few names for you. Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, and Sasha Pavlovich. Have you ever heard of these players? Because I haven't. Well, except for Ilgauskas, probably because he's a 7 foot 3 giant, but honestly, other than that, I don't know much about him. Anyway, these are the 4 players that were with LeBron when he carried the Cavaliers to the 2007 Finals. There were no other All-Stars next to him, no All-NBA players, no defensive players of the year, just role players. To win an NBA championship these days, except if you get lucky with injuries on the opposing team, you actually need legit stars on your team, and if your GM doesn't draft or trade for them, then what is a player supposed to do? Because look, the early 2000 Lakers had 2 of the top 10 players of all time. San Antonio had 3 All-NBA players, Golden State had 4 Hall of Famers, but LeBron had these guys in 07. I ain't trying to throw shade on these 4 players, but I'm just trying to point out the fact that LeBron didn't have the extra star power that's necessary to win it all, and that the Cavs GM and owner weren't helping him. Luka is just realizing this now too, that no matter how talented he is, that no matter how many points he puts up on the scoreboard, that he can't win with a bunch of role players, and that's exactly why Mark Cuban went out to acquire Kyrie. So while it's true that LeBron had to move in order to win, he actually just got the short end of the stick when it came to the GM and owner who were building the team. Anyway, the last and arguably the most ridiculous narrative surrounding LeBron James is that he's not one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. This is absolutely ridiculous, and is something that I expect somebody like Ryan Hollins to say. If you don't know who this guy is, watch some of his previous takes on ESPN and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm not going to argue who's the number one scorer in NBA history, but to say that he's not one of the greatest scorers in NBA history is again, basketball blasphemy. I mean, he's now the leading scorer in the history of the regular season, the leading scorer in the history of the playoffs, he's averaging 27 points per game throughout his entire career, which is about the same as Kevin Durant, but yet, he's not one of the greatest scorers in NBA history? Now, you could say that he's not one of the greatest shooters of all time, but scorers? I don't even know how to respond to someone who says that. Anyway, what do you think about the narrative surrounding LeBron James? Do you think they're crazy, or would you back some of them up? Let me know your take in the comments section below, because I'd love to hear what you guys think.