I have to say that I was a bit stunned with all the Lebron hate after his latest decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers. But I shouldnt have been. The World cup just finished. The MLB has a ways to go to get to the finish line and the NFL is still a few days away from every team reporting to training camp. It’s the biggest thing the sports world has to talk about. And you best believe that Lebron definitely knew how to properly time this latest decision. A decision he knew would be the main topic of sports talk for at least a few days, if not more.
Why are we worried about the Lebron vs Jordan talk right now? Comparison is the theif of joy. We should be enjoying of the best players ever, we should be happy that he went to a team that’s really expected to contend for a championship next season. It doesn’t matter that this is the 4th team he’s played with. How may jobs have you had in the prime of your working years? We shouldn’t be trying to hold Lebron to a standard from 30 years ago. We also shouldn’t move the goal post or anything for that GOAT conversation but the GOAT conversation is not really relevant right now. What’s relevant is that the NBA just got better with Lebron going to Philly. If they meet expectations, we have a new Villian to root against, especially if they can manage to win it all in 2026.
To say that if Lebron loses with Philly that this hurts his GOAT debate sounds silly to me. I’m squarely in the MJ corner, being that I grew up in the 80s and 90s and I know better. But to think that this decsion from Lebron, in his 24th season, should be in any way used negatively against him sounds absurb to me. Lebron was still one of the top 20 players in the NBA and sometimes was the best player on the floor in the 2025-2026 season. Not as much as before, but he still showed he could bend games to his will, as shown in the playoff series against the Houston Rockets. What other player has played 20 seasons and has been this effective? Maybe Kareem? Not really. Or maybe Malone and Stockton. That’s about it. Point is, I don’t think we can judge somebody who’s in a class of their own as far being this effective, post 40 years old.
The man has no true comparison. Again, maybe Stockton and Malone. They were still effective late in their career, in their 40s, but neither one of them were the the best player on the floor at that time. We actually should be looking at Lebron and trying to understand how we can be similar to him. How can we be ageless? How can we start delaying Father time a little longer than we’ve been taught? We don’t have to get old as fast as we do. We choose to by what we do, what we intake and what our predesessors told us was possible. Every generation of athlete and human has gotten better at how to live in the past 40 years. We can’t stop now. We shouldn’t stop now.
So instead of judging Lebron’s decison negatively, maybe we should be looking at him and learning. Learning what we can do to stay relevant in this journey of life. Sorry to turn this in a different direction and break it down like that. But this silliness of looking for something to judge someone about is driving me crazy. We don’t pay attention to things anymore to understand them. We pay attention just to find something specific that we can critique. Maybe we critique a bad game, or what he does outside of the game. Or maybe we critique how a player dresses before the game. Or maybe it’s the way he does things differently than what’s expected. We are good at seaching and finding things to critique. And the media makes sure to give us more than enough data to pick from which keep us distracted with that continual non-sense. And here’s a topic on Lebron stacking his teams.
Of course he stacks his team. That’s what General Managers try to do every season. He’s trying to win folks. Winning is what’s it’s all about. We all try to put ourselves in the best position to win in life. Anybody with his power would try to stack their team in order to win. We see it everyday at the gym when we play pickup backetball. We see it on the news, whether it’s the political landscape or something else. You guys are killing me.
All of these emotions are being displayed because Lebron is making decisions that others are scared to make or don’t have the power to make. Just stop it! It’s a good talking point though. Enjoy.