LeBron James has been a topic of controversy for over two decades now. A litany of narratives have been built up against him over the years with the most recent being he isn’t held ‘accountable’ for leaving the game worse than he found it. This was propagated by Kwame Brown which was immediately laughed at by Theo Pinson and Raymond Felton.
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“He’s just a hater,” said Pinson. “All I saw was a guy stuck on ‘stupid’. Because that just made no sense whatsoever. LeBron James doesn’t get held accountable?” continued the former Nets star. Clearly, he was dumbfounded by this take as he flat out rejected any part of what Brown said.
“Talking about the most- the person that people talk crazy about the most on all outlets that I’ve seen. They kill this man [James] all the time,” said Felton.
Such a visceral reaction was brought about by Kwame blatantly pushing forth quite the false agenda regarding James. “LeBron is a football player playing basketball. And they moved these rules so that his skill set could work. And so, they got rid of the power forward.”
Getting ‘rid’ of the power forward wasn’t something that was intentional, let alone done for the benefit of one man. The game evolved as skills and offenses evolved. Having a post-dominant, high touches player with limited floor spacing was simply not viable following the Warriors renaissance.
James has been able to dominate NBA defenses simply off of his own merit. Whether it was 25 straight points against the ‘suffocating’ Pistons defense in the Playoffs back in 2007 or him notching 30-point triple doubles in 2024 as a 39-year-old, James has adapted to what the game has demanded from him.
Kwame has gone at LeBron before
This isn’t the first time Kwame has gone at James. Prior to the start of the 2024-25 season, he called him out for not developing parts of his game.
“The old school players wouldn’t have any trouble with LeBron because, at 39, he should have developed a mid-range and a post-game, and he still hasn’t yet.”
This is not true in the slightest. LeBron has shown time and time again that he can back players down at will in the post all while getting to his spots in the mid-range. He’s become more inclined to take fadeaway jumpers over the past decade and has been making them at a high clip as well.
This season alone he’s shooting over 44% on mid-range shots. It’s safe to say that along with his refined 3-point shot and his impeccable driving ability, he’s also figured out the ‘in-between’ game as well. Kwame simply has not done enough research on the evolution of James’ game along with his overtly positive impact on the entirety of the basketball over the course of 22 years.
