Veteran Lakers forward LeBron James is facing a lot of backlash for comments he made on his “Mind the Game” podcast. The 21-time All-Star slammed the prevalent “ring culture” in the NBA, stressing that an individual’s greatness should not be measured by their total championship count.
“Trying to nitpick an individual because he was not able to win a team game… It’s so weird. It’s never enough,” James said.
FS1 analyst Craig Carton came down hard on James, calling him “an insufferable narcissist” for his comments.
“He’s an insufferable narcissist,” Carton said on the “Breakfast Ball” on June 18. “Great player. For my money, a top 10 player of all time, for sure. You can debate where you want to put him. He’s not number one. But it’s so clear to me, I can’t prove this, it’s just my take on it, of how Michael Jordan lives rent-free in his head.”
“It’s a generational thing, for sure. But it’s so obvious to me that he’s insecure about that. And he’s somewhat desperate – maybe that’s a strong word – to be known as the greatest of all time.”
LeBron James Called Himself the GOAT
Carton highlighted that James brought a lot of scrutiny onto himself by declaring himself the greatest of all time, over Michael Jordan, on several occasions before.
“You can’t do that podcast,” Carton said of James anointing himself the GOAT.
“And say you don’t understand why people talk about championships in relation to how great a player you are, when every time you went from one city to another, why did you go? To try to win championships.”
LeBron Formed Several Super Teams
Elsewhere, FS1’s and Rob Parker blamed James for spreading the “ring culture” in the NBA by forming super teams in Miami and Cleveland.
“If he had enough rings to be considered the greatest, it would be ok. Typical LeBron,” Parker said on “The Odd Couple” podcast. “He doesn’t feel like he’s going to get there, and it’s going to be held against him. So now he’s going to downplay the ring.”
“If it wasn’t about the rings, why did you leave Cleveland and go to Miami chasing rings? You’re the one who did it, the one who ran away, the one who put together a superteam so that you could win rings.”
Parker wondered why James saw the need to go to Miami if he wasn’t bothered by the lack of championship rings.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had a similar take on “First Take” on November 18.
“Why did you depart Cleveland to go to Miami and join forces with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade to get one? Why did you depart from there to go back to Cleveland?” Smith said. “LeBron only went back to Cleveland for one reason. To resurrect his reputation and his stature.”
On ESPN’s Get Up, Brian Windhorst agreed that James did a lot to foster the ring culture in the NBA.
“LeBron contributed to this with his movement in his career to join super teams,” Windhorst said. “In that situation, he sort of set a standard to change the conversation.”
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