Quote Originally Posted by coop View Post
I don't understand why people get so fired up about people "hating" Lebron.

People don't hate Lebron because they think he is an overrated player. They hate him because he is brash, conceited, overly aware and concerned with peoples' opinion of him, corny, sold out his home town, The Decision, whines after EVERY missed shot to the refs (even whined after a half court buzzer beater attempt tonight), refers to himself as King James to other players in text messages, quit in the finals, etc.

I honestly think Lebron's new focus and attitude is 100% self interest driven by wanting to silence critics and restore his image, I don't think he has a shred of intrinsic motivation to be great and win a championship
It's Heat fans (like Mike, the OP) who have a problem with Lebron-haters. Most non-Heat fans either hate Lebron or are indifferent about him I think.

Despite all your excellent points, gotta admit I'm mostly rooting for the guy at this point. For a bunch of reasons. For one thing, he's held up to a higher standard than anyone ever, so that's a lot of weight to bear. Number two, the guy has paid his dues... all those years with lousy Cavs teams, three trips to the Finals, etc. And finally, even though I hated his guts like everyone else did after The Decision, I feel like he KNOWS that was a huge mistake, and he's paid his penance by being a villain for two years now. And finally, I really don't think he's a bad guy. I think he's much more viewed as some total a-hole than he is an actual a-hole. There's WAY worse guys in the league than him. I'd like to see him earn himself a title now. And even though I love Durant (who doesn't?), the Thunder are SO young and have paid NO dues yet -- you gotta have some gut-wrenching playoff failures first, and your fans must pay their dues too! The OKC fans don't deserve a title yet, come on, they just got the fukkin team!!