LeBron James: A Reputation in Shambles

Merry Christmas, everyone (it's Christmas, gotta say that over Happy Holidays), and thank heavens for the NBA's five-game slate today, because the NFL is too stupid to have a game today. Remember, the NFL can schedule a game whenever they want to and someone would watch it. It happened Thursday, it will happen when the Yankees or the Red Sox play the Phillies in the World Series in October 2011, it would probably be the biggest ratings boom in the middle of July. But I digress.

The reason I decided to get back on this soapbox is LeBron. Oh, how I loathe that narcissistic turd, but there is something behind this whole contraction opinion he recently shared with the media. Look more closlier:

"Hopefully the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the '80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team," James said. "The league was great. It wasn't as watered down as it is [now]."

I hope I'm not the only one that is reading into this at length, but think about it: LeBron wants there to be three or four superstars on every team. Now, I know there is definitely one team in the NBA that arguably has to deal with that situation, and that is the Heat. The Celtics are the only other team to fall under this classification, as Pierce, Allen, and KG continue to maintain such a high level of play. The Lakers have maybe three if you count Odom with Kobe and Gasol, but seriously, LeBron arranged to sign with two other superstars in Miami and now he's complaining that the league is watered down. Look at the team he left: Cleveland is watered down because LeBron isn't there, and they're probably headed to the top of the lottery this year because there's no incentive to play there anymore outside of a decent contract offer.

And other teams are not exactly struggling with less than three superstars. The Knicks are holding their own against the League with only Amar'e having made any All-Star appearances, but Gallinari and Felton could find themselves in the mix for the Mid-Winter Classic. Orlando looks to be in the hunt with the shells of former superstars Agent Zero and VC joining the supporting cast of Dwight Howard.

If LeBron wants to scapegoat the rest of the League for being unwilling to shell out for three max contracts, the guise of contraction is not one he should don. Things were great because of great teams in the '80's, not friends who decided to band together to destroy the system. If only every player had this option. Sorry everyone can't band together to rely on others' talents like you.