I just want to enjoy basketball. When is the last time a true underdog story occurred in the NBA? No, I don't mean a #1 seed in the east beating a #1 seed in the west after key players were limited or lost due to injury. LeBron is a product of the NBA, but just because I see him for who he is, a normally great player who has been given special treatment 10x that of any other player to ever play the game, doesn't mean I don't enjoy basketball, enjoy other teams, and I don't enjoy the things LeBron does on his own that are truly impressive, which is why I don't get why he does the stupid shit, like meddle in the front office and flop so damn much.
Like I said, unless people are willing to call out flops and stop giving players such a huge pass, they make the game worse. Rewarding serial floppers to me is stupid. The league promised to fine players, but then realized they couldn't go after the face of the league because it's bad business. Well, like anything, they need to take their medicine before this cancer spreads to the point that it is out of control. That means getting to the point where LeBron gets suspended for flopping, James Harden is fined, Ginobili gets suspended, Marcus Smart, Chris Paul, Westbrook, Wade, Griff, Curry, Tony Parker, Lowry, .... notice how that list is loaded with *mostly* all-stars and some future HoFers? Because the league rewards flopping.
My whole TL;DR point is, the LeBron hate would be severely reduced if the flopping rules were actually enforced in the league, and not just super-selectively. If he was given 400% less superstar treatment, closer to that of say the Jordan that he is compared to. LeBron would earn the respect of 10x more fans and make a real case for his legacy, where now it is tainted nearly from top to bottom. Heck, I really love Bill Laimbeer, I know a good chunk of you are a little younger and mostly caught the 2nd 3-peat Bulls and did not get to fully experience that Pistons rivalry, but damn do I respect the hell out of Freddie because even though we was a dirty player, he was also held accountable and had a certain kind of competitive nature that we have not seen since. Rivalries don't account for my opinion, the player accounts for my opinion of them, and LeBron is a poser that flashes every so often.
It's almost like letting Simon Cowell commish all the world's music, and he gets to decide who is the greatest. And when he finds out quickly he's wrong about who is truly, he puts his thumb on the scale just to rig the industry, therefore making a false idol. And some of us do not like listening to One Direction, but now there is a group of people who defend One Direction, therefore anyone who criticizes them doesn't like music. Sounds rational.
