Does LeBron James deserve all the hatred he is getting?
LeBron James love him or hate him the man has skills. Is he
better than Michael Jordan however is yet to be known, the stats can sort
themselves out for that one.
LeBron James is for some reason hated by half of the world’s
population and is loved by the other half, the majority of this hatred has only
recently occurred when the former Cleveland Cavaliers star declared his
interest in moving and taking his talents to the Miami Heat, this was in order
to play alongside fellow Olympians Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
When arriving in Miami LeBron bought the hatred upon himself
with a welcome party where he stated that they would win “not one, not two, not
three, not four, not five, not six and you know where this is going”
championships. So from that point of view yes some of the hatred is deserved.
But when you take in the simplicity of all of this and come
round to the fact that at this present time he is the greatest player currently
in the NBA, I’m not saying greatest ever, but currently the greatest. The
hatred is not deserved.
The stats that LeBron has averaged over the current season
are jaw dropping the man averaged 37.5 minutes per game, he shot 53.1% from the
field, he backed that up by shooting 36.2% from behind the three point line and
shooting 77.1% from the free throw line. To add to his amazing shooting
percentages he also average 7.9 rebounds per game with 1.5 of them being
offensive and 6.4 being defensive, he averaged 6.2 assists per game not bad
considering he averaged 27.1 points per game and was the 3rd leading
scorer behind Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant. All this whilst also guarding a
bigger man and only giving up 1.5 fouls per game and not fouling out during the
regular season.
LeBron James won the NBA’s most valuable player award for
the 3rd time this year out doing Oklahoma City’s young gun and
scoring champion Kevin Durant. The two have now come face to face in the NBA
finals to try and be crowned World Champions.
How can anybody say that the hatred towards LeBron is
deserved? People say that LeBron James isn’t clutch and that they wouldn’t
choose to give him the ball when the game is on the line, I say to these people
you guys are crazy. The table 1.0 below shows the number of clutch shots in the
last 5 minutes of games to be taken and made by players since 2006. Clearly
this table shows that the person with the best percentage and the guy you
should want taking the clutch shots is in fact the same guy that so many hate
because he is apparently not “clutch enough”, and that man is LeBron James.
Table 1.0 (Clutch shots since 2006)
Player
|
FG
|
FGA
|
FG%
|
3PM
|
3PA
|
3P%
|
Ast'd
|
%Ast'd
|
Best
|
Worst
|
LeBron
|
333
|
714
|
0.466
|
74
|
231
|
0.320
|
79
|
0.237
|
55%
|
42%
|
Roy
|
166
|
371
|
0.447
|
24
|
71
|
0.338
|
26
|
0.157
|
48%
|
36%
|
Vince
|
185
|
420
|
0.440
|
42
|
117
|
0.359
|
72
|
0.389
|
50%
|
38%
|
CP3
|
187
|
430
|
0.435
|
23
|
73
|
0.315
|
22
|
0.118
|
50%
|
37%
|
Dirk
|
235
|
541
|
0.434
|
34
|
107
|
0.318
|
107
|
0.455
|
48%
|
40%
|
Melo
|
193
|
447
|
0.432
|
23
|
72
|
0.319
|
84
|
0.435
|
52%
|
42%
|
Rose
|
168
|
401
|
0.419
|
4
|
31
|
0.129
|
23
|
0.137
|
44%
|
40%
|
Kobe
|
317
|
769
|
0.412
|
58
|
185
|
0.314
|
69
|
0.218
|
46%
|
39%
|
Wade
|
205
|
507
|
0.404
|
27
|
101
|
0.267
|
34
|
0.166
|
47%
|
32%
|
Iggy
|
158
|
394
|
0.401
|
24
|
112
|
0.214
|
28
|
0.177
|
48%
|
31%
|
Durant
|
191
|
479
|
0.399
|
40
|
123
|
0.325
|
103
|
0.539
|
47%
|
35%
|
Pierce
|
167
|
430
|
0.388
|
32
|
97
|
0.330
|
60
|
0.359
|
44%
|
21%
|
JJ
|
174
|
449
|
0.388
|
40
|
114
|
0.351
|
47
|
0.270
|
46%
|
32%
|
R.Allen
|
151
|
391
|
0.386
|
78
|
215
|
0.363
|
105
|
0.695
|
44%
|
34%
|
Russ
|
150
|
403
|
0.372
|
13
|
56
|
0.232
|
23
|
0.153
|
42%
|
30%
|
Avg.
|
199
|
476
|
0.415
|
36
|
114
|
0.300
|
59
|
0.300
|
47%
|
35%
|
To add to my statement that LeBron is in fact a big time
player let’s take a look at a further three tables that compare LeBron’s
shooting in Playoffs to Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade.
Final 24 Sec (Playoffs since 2000)
Player
|
FG
|
FGA
|
FG%
|
3PM
|
3PA
|
3P%
|
Ast'd
|
Ast'd
|
Kobe
|
6
|
21
|
0.286
|
1
|
8
|
0.125
|
1
|
0.167
|
LeBron
|
5
|
12
|
0.417
|
1
|
3
|
0.333
|
1
|
0.200
|
Wade
|
2
|
5
|
0.400
|
0
|
2
|
0.000
|
0
|
0.000
|
Final Minute (Playoffs since 2000)
Player
|
FG
|
FGA
|
FG%
|
3PM
|
3PA
|
3P%
|
Ast'd
|
Ast'd
|
Kobe
|
10
|
31
|
0.323
|
2
|
10
|
0.200
|
2
|
0.200
|
LeBron
|
10
|
20
|
0.500
|
1
|
3
|
0.333
|
1
|
0.100
|
Wade
|
3
|
10
|
0.300
|
1
|
5
|
0.200
|
1
|
0.333
|
"Clutch" (Playoffs since
2000)
Player
|
FG
|
FGA
|
FG%
|
3PM
|
3PA
|
3P%
|
Ast'd
|
Ast'd
|
Kobe
|
81
|
203
|
0.399
|
11
|
41
|
0.268
|
12
|
0.148
|
LeBron
|
70
|
154
|
0.455
|
17
|
48
|
0.354
|
10
|
0.143
|
Wade
|
39
|
102
|
0.382
|
4
|
15
|
0.267
|
5
|
0.128
|
These tables show me that in every aspect of being a big
time player in the NBA playoff that I would prefer to have LeBron James taking
the clutch shots and trying to win me the match than having either Kobe Bryant
or Dwayne Wade taking them.
LeBron being ringless, what does that have to do with him
not being good enough? I’ll tell you, it has absolutely nothing to do with him
not being able to perform it has to do with the players he has around him being
substandard or that they came up against a better team, notice I said team not
player because a team wins rings not an individual. Lebron’s teams in Cleveland
were average to say the least and he still got them to the finals of the
Eastern Conference.
I believe that he does not deserve all the hate he is
getting and that the current Miami team he is with will either win the playoffs
this year or next year but when they do they will then win a few in successive
years.
Reference List