Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am  |  150 responses

Why LeBron’s Ego Deserves a Pass

LeBron James

by Ryne Nelson

Reporters couldn’t find LeBron after Game 6 in Orlando, but paparazzi had no trouble finding LeBron James in the Mediterranean last week. Now don’t get crazy. Don’t jump straight to the comments to banter about how LeBron is feeling himself too much.

LeBron is not humble. But let’s break the hate down to see where it’s coming from: He wears the two-three and a “Chosen 1″ tat. He’s turned chalk into Nike ad campaigns. He speaks in third person. He wasn’t there for his team when it mattered most.

Is all this really a problem? And are LeBron’s laconic reminders, like this “Check my $tats” tee, going too far? Some may see it as blatant egocentrism—”LeBron James Ego Tour Rolls On” as TMZ headlined it—but it’s just part of being a competitor. Sports build arrogance, and when your life is centered around winning and losing, ego is bred and spread. Every great player in history has been full of himself, and it’s lunacy to believe Hall of Fame players come without ego.

Remember this iconic Wilt image? Who doesn’t. How about this book about Michael Jordan’s selfishness and arrogance? Kobe Bryant, possibly the most appreciated basketball player at the moment, was hated for his arrogance from the moment he held a press conference to announce he was going to the L out of high school.

And let’s just say it wasn’t Derek Fisher who was the only one wearing a different tee at the Lakers’ championship parade.

Hating a player’s ego is wack. People always want it both ways. People hate Duncan because he’s too humble. How is KG’s ego all of a sudden too much when he’s been the same player his entire career?

The facts are plain. LeBron is arrogant like all superstar athletes. He doesn’t have a ring yet. But he is the best bball player in the world, and his stats and awards all back him up. No hooper has achieved the individual success LeBron has by age 24.

Of course, you can check some of LeBron’s other “$tats” as well. And $40 million this past year isn’t looking too bad.

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  • http://slamonline.com B. Long

    ^That’s funny because before the Conf. finals everybody thought his supporting cast was good enough to win a Chip then. But I guess since they didn’t Mo Williams blows goats for quarters now.

  • http://ballislife.com Moose

    ^Exactly. Will LBJ ever have a good supporting cast? Hmmmm. Bron, forgot the athlete billionaire thing. Take a cut from your outrageous pay to get some goddamn teammates. And B, something new on Bachi that you might want to check.^

  • Tal

    Dude Wilt didn’t have video of the highest record scoring in the nba. Youre telling me taking ONE picture with a 100 on a piece of paper as one piece of memorabilia is selfindulgent? Ridiculous. LeBron is just an attention whore, and a bit whiney with that shirt.

    Also the bad supporting cast is a dumb ass excuse because all throughout the year they were jerking off to the fact that the Cavs were the ones to beat and how LeBron makes his teammates better. You can’t change your stance the second things get tough.

  • Jesse

    …7 years …4 rings …long road

  • Rnz

    Over a shirt, people?…come on…

  • http://antwonomous.blogspot.com Antwonomous

    Like, I’m not trying to instigate or anything like that, but have you guys been reading David Friedman’s 20 Second Timeout blog? You guys are in his cross-hairs, along with John Krolik and ESPN. You might want to check it out, David has thrown some heat SLAM/SLAM ONLINE’s way.

  • Jose

    Tim Duncan is humble. Russell too.

  • Los

    Lebro’s supporting cast was exposed in the play-offs. at the beginning of the year everyone was on the Laker bandwagon. and being the shirt says $tats and not stats, its about money and not sports. either way its just a shirt. Lebron will get his. trust

  • http://www.slamonline.com Todd Spehr

    Ego, confidence, arrogance: It’s all stuff you associate with stars. What’s the big deal? There’s a tiny sample of superstars that don’t have much self-confidence. Jerry West, maybe, for example. I mean, look at Federer when he walked out to center court yesterday at Wimbledon – gold Nike bag, complete with his initials on it. It’s part of sport. Also, where can I get that shirt?

  • Zee

    Hakeem Olajuan blows up your entire argument.

  • HushD

    I hope we can all agree that we have the ability to discern differences in traits and that relativity allows us to debate the issue. That is, we utilize scale to size up a player’s ability such as the 50 best etc. The ego level has a degree as well. For instance while LeBron has an ego, Kobe is the only player I know of who is capable of patting himself on the back while performing auto-fellatio. That guy is talented!

  • LeWho

    Umm if my math is correct LeBron will have to win 4 of the next 6 ‘chips to be on Kobe’s level when he’s 30. Personally I’m not seeing it. He may be the greatest athlete on the planet but his skill level will never match KB24.

  • wilz

    ill pass on the lebron circle jerk..i didnt realize I was going to read a love letter instead of an article.
    nice T tho

  • http://www.broy7.com nate the great

    its ok for kobe and derek fisher for wearing shirts like that, i mean they WON a title, your supposed to celebrate and brag. i mean look at paul pierce saying he was the best in the world last year.
    but bron hasnt really done anything. check his stats? yeah nba titles 0. I mean if were saying mvp’s are great, my man steve nash has 2.
    he doesnt go around wearing shirts like that. he doesnt do anything fancy. he’s like tim duncan.
    this guy, idk what it is about him. i hate him.
    i repect his skills, and i kno he is good, but i just hate him.

  • Harrell

    Dam nate that be a little ruf but WHY IS THERE A ARTICLE ABOUT FN T-SHIRTS? Oh I know because Bron is no longer the Anakain Skywalker but we already got Vader. His name is Kobe

  • PeeDee

    Wow, so muchcrap put into so few words. respect!!!

    a few topics….

    Wilts pic: he scored 100 points!!!! e record that is lasting generations!!!! and the only thing he does is holding up a peace of paper with just that acomplishment on it…

    jordan: check your mag!!! you got this guy at the #1 spot and the other guy “just made it in”…and by the way, the term “jordan rules” wasnt his idea, it was createt by his opponents and THTS an accomplishement itself!!!!

    Kobe&fish: very simple, THEY HAVE 4 RINGS!!! why shouldt they point out four fingers??? thers endles pics of repeating champs, holding up more than one finger while not everyone on the team has won that much…and comearing the “pre-nba-hype” of kobe to that of lebron is like compearing switzerland to texas!!!

    “what would you do if everyone told you youre the best, its not easy for lebron?” – ARE YOU SERIOUSE???? like PE would say: “dont belive the hype!

    and this whole-”no one has acomplished what lebron has acomplished at 24″-is just so redicouluse!!! you cant compare generations, SPECIALY THE MEDIA!!! 70% of the hype came from this mag!!!!

    darius miles, sebastian telfair, andrew bynum etc. they all scored theire first NBA-point before jordan and wilt, so that means in historical-content theyre better than him????

    …but i guess i have now idea of just how gooooooood lebron is and how one day he`ll be averaging a quadruble-double whil3e defending “his titel” for the 15th time in a row….whateva

  • http://www.slamonline.com Blinguo

    “Ma dollar sign E, fear no man.” Ma$e lookin beach (bum) wear t-shirts in 2009, and links to TMZ stories, Offseason doldrums. Hey at least it wasn’t the most infamous Ma$e line: “Young black and famous, with money hanging out the anus.” I think those rap-graphs were linked on here and there was one with the %’s of where Mase’s money is kept. So LeBron should have went with the T&C designs Maui Shark? 90′s NBA player muscle tanktop? (add checkered/stripe print muscle gym pants and plastic shades for full effect – Shaq thought he was doin’ it back then with that outfit)

  • http://www.slamonline.com Blinguo

    LRG also has out some T-shirts w/ cartoon pandas with surfboards on them. & a California wave one. “Street wear.” Looks like LeBron’s shirt came from cafepress and his own printed up one, not like Nike putting this shirt out specifically for him or something. Right? If not, stop it Nike.

  • RedGold&Green

    The King…holla!

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/category/blogs/fear/ Freedom Fries

    Both Lebron’s and Kobe’s T shirts are hysterical. Good for them. Lebron keeping in real in Freedom-land. Where else would you go peoples? j/k

  • Marvz

    Granted, all superstars are arrogant due to their insatiable desire to win. But do they get the same treatment? Jordan was arrogant, and he wasn’t blasted. Kobe is arrogant, and is hated. LeBron has always been arrogant, but was only chastised now. If only people will judge them equally then all will be fine.

    And Lebron vs Kobe debate is very absurd. What I’m seeing right now is LeBron making the same mistakes that Kobe did when he was young. Conclusion? LeBron is still learning and evolving as a player and we can’t properly decide until both players have ended their careers.

    Still, it’s hard to compare them due to their difference in skill and position. Honestly, since when have you heard people debating that Chamberlain is better than Mike?

  • Los

    to Lewho: Jump off Kobe’s sack. Kobe nad Shaq, Horry, and Fisher. Lebron hasn’t had any one help him.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sesa-Opas/738856357 Sesa

    Okay, he wore a T-Shirt with a stupid sayings on it. It wasn’t a crime. The real crime were his refusal to shake hands, that’s it. There’s no need to put him under the microscope too much

  • bill breedley

    Los you douche. last month all you bron jockers were saying mo,delonte and those other bums were the best team in the league. Whatever happened to Bron makes em better bullcrap? 2 years ago bynum, trevor and lamar were bums. last year pau was soft and fish was old. hence, kobe makes his team better apparently since he led them to the gold. blah blah blah. its all about the results. til bron gets ring he will be queen crab dribble aka the king without a ring

  • http://nbacheapseats.blogspot.com Chendaddy

    LeBron volunteers at a local Cleveland soup kitchen wearing a “I Make Lots and Lots of Money” t-shirt.

  • http://yahoo.com Logan

    all lebron cares about is being the highest paid athlete. he is not humble at all, and he thinks he’s cool cause he does his pre game throw the chalk up in the air, when he copied it from kg who first did it back in sota.

  • Mel

    wat was sed that lbj WASNT there 4 his team is bull****, he is the ONLY player 2 hav averaged 40-8-8 in history…25 points isnt a bad game, in fact its rlly gud. the 1 hu let the team down was the team…no1 stud in howards way, z only had 2 point etso dont say its LBJ fault!

  • Rock

    Listen up close …Lebron is 24 years old..hes a hillarious person..and a Very nice guy and has a ton of fun playing basketball..give him time to grow up…and on vacation everyone wheres Dum$#@it tshirts …get off his stuff..he shook my hand after i said he had a nice game…hes a decent person ..and hes smart enough not to get married and have hoes on the side like somone im not gonna mention.

  • Johnny

    where can i get one of these shirts???

  • mendeezy

    people who say lebron shouldn’t be this arrogant because he only has an mvp and no title are STUPID. charles barkley never got a ring, was an mvp, and he was just as arrogant. lebron never even talks trash to his opponent (or very little). well at least compared to players such as barkley, jordan, kobe, shaq, etc. i’ve even seen d-wade dunk on someone and taunt him, receiving a technical foul in the process lol.

  • mendeezy

    o and i don’t get what it means when it said “he wasn’t there when they needed him the most.” it’s not like anyone died. it’s not like he was going to go and hug everyone to make the loss feel better. that makes no sense. it was right after the elimination loss. i bet no other cav wanted to talk to anyone after, they just did or they’d get fined (like lebron did). they probably got together after or whatever. the time they needed him the most was not the press-conference after the game, but rather during gameplay the entire season and playoffs.

  • http://slamonline.com coltdaddy

    come on if you have millions and one of the best players in the world you would have a big ego too but the guy is kinda of a goof and likes too be really goofy and isoutspoken so those kinda people have big egos thats why kobe doesnt have tats like that and is not that outspoken and lebron was there for his team scoring over 35 points every game in that series he was over working himself getting cramps in his legs but he was still lead scorrer if you were going to hate onsomeone that was not there for his team it would be every one besides delonte or lebron. so

  • Rock

    To keep it even more real..the real fact is people like the TMZ group, internet, radio and basically huge communication differences..and ALOT of romancing hides how alot of former players really were..people from Cleveland know for a fact guys like Albert Bell ..Manny Ramirez ..Micheal Jordan Etc etc..they were huge F$#@king a$$holes to meet in person..He coulda came up after the game and said the Tim brown “we just lost to a team with no talent” or some other rediculous rude statement..or he could keep his mouth shut and go home so he doesnt make an A@@ out of the organization like all the other athletes wanna do in press confrences..he was Pissed…Cle Barely lost ever single game to a team that can Only shoot threes and a Center who never makes foul shots untill this series..Cleveland had the best record in the NBA so we need to stop saying he did everything and his team sucks and start saying …They lost as a team unit, because of matchup issues ..it woulda been a completely diffrent series between Cleveland and the Lakers..because we can actually Guard Bynum and Gasol

  • laFlecha

    LeBron is the best player right now, maybe he hasnt an ego but a pride…lets look at he stats instead of his shirt…then you would know…he is friendly and humble…and amazing, dont forget that!!!!go LBJ go!!

  • http://nba.com aj young

    first of all lebron dammmmmm sure aint the best bball playa in the world who ever said that is just stupid yes look at stats kobe had 3 rings when he was 24 so relax and dont forget lets add another one. Lebron needs to work on gettin a WIN in the finals b4 hes the best at anything

  • ilikechips

    Maybe Lebron though this shirt would be funny to wear.

  • Robb

    Cool article, but Lebron is not the best player in the World dude. He is arguably the best athlete in the NBA, but the best BASKETBALL PLAYER is Kobe. His skills are unparalleled. When Lebron learns to shoot the ball then he will be the best, but as long as he is a “dunks and lay ups” type of player Kobe will be the best

  • Jay-G

    @Brian: Forgetting about Magic running Westhead out of LA around the time he was 24.

  • Brad

    “He wasn’t there for his team when it mattered most.” – ummm I’m pretty sure it mattered a whole lot more when they actually played the game as opposed to when the series ended and the Magic won. I agree that LeBron not congratulating the Magic right after Game 6 was not the classiest move in the world. But when it mattered most for his team – was when they were actually playing the games. And last time I checked LeBron was more than “there for his team” just as he has been his whole career.

    Let’s stop making a mountain out of a molehill here dude. He’s 24, he’s still growing up and learning.

  • sean

    u guys are pathetic, it is a t-shirt. Lebron is naturally a funny guy. Why do yall analyze everything move he makes so critically? Youre obviously jealous, or you are perfect.

  • chintao

    All the guys mentioned in this piece can burn in everlasting hell-fire, except for Wilt. That guy will always have my respect.

  • HF

    A)Derek Fisher wore the same shirt during the parade because he too has four rings.
    B)Kobe is still the best in the league. Get off Bron’s nuts you pube.

  • http://nba.com Daniel

    I heat Kobe Byant.

  • http://nba.com Daniel

    I heat Derek Fisher.

  • http://www.oprah.com doyouwantmore

    LBJ4LMAO

  • nba kid

    currently, bron hasn’t even had the career Dirk has: one mvp, a terrible finals performance and getting bounced in the playoffs. no ones ego deserves a pass unless you’ve got 6+ rings and 2+ mvps.

  • james johnson

    not one person in the world can hate on lebron james. what arguement do you have? he’s put up amazing stats that only OSCAR ROBERTSON and MJ put up if you noticed kobe wasn’t in there either was magic or bird or any of those greats.he hasn’t won an nba title. ok, but he hasn’t had nearly the supporting cast of kobe or mj or bird or magic or wilt or any great player that has multiple championships. The fact is that even mj the greatest player of all time would never have won one with out pippen. and kobe without shaq or pau he didnt do anything before pau got that and after shaq left. Now we’ll see if lebron can win with a very old shaq who is about half the player he was with kobe.

  • http://mcglothinandassociates.logomall.com keith McGlothin

    Nothing James does seems to amaze me, I’ve said all along he gets too much credit when things go good and not enough blame when things go bad. The truth of the matter is, he is who he shows himself to be.

    He isn’t the greatest or best player on the planet, maybe most exciting, and there is a difference. Maybe he was wearing the shirt there because no one knew or cared who he was, Kobe is king and has da ring.

    It would have been nice to wear it to a game 7, too bad he couldn’t get past game 5. Nobody wants to come and play with him unless overpaid to do so. No FA has come close to coming here, Shaq was acquired in a trade, though February would have helped much more.

    I checked your stats, I also witnessed you missing 40 shots in games 3 and 4, free throws included, against Orlando. I know you score a lot, you should! You shoot a lot. I see you don’t rebound on the offensive end, don’t make free throws in the clutch, no top FA’s want to come and run with you, among many others.

    I’m a Cav’s fan first and foremost. I guess maybe he is just making up for Winslow no longer being in town, he said he was great too. How about you let Shaq do the recruiting from here on out.

  • http://slamonline.com Emon Nazari

    Kobe had Pau Gasol, while Lebron went to the finals by himself in 07, but Kobe didn’t, and kobe can’t even past the first round by himself.

  • http://ricardo8Sanders@aol.com Ricoh

    LEBRON is the best player in the NBA,Kobie is not even close compared to Lebron.He has never had the supported cast as Kobie had when he won the Chamopionships with the big fellow(Shaq) in his prime. Lebron is stats stuffer,he average almost a triple double every game, almost since he’s been in the league,he is the most dominant player in the game.KObie changed his once sullen mean personality ,because Lebron is so well liked by all the players.The tee shirt is merely stated a fact. The teacher reminds of tv show I watched when I was kid,The Real Mccoy’s,The grandfather in the show would always say “no brag just facts”. People with ego’s shoot all the time, with low percentage, like Kobie.

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