Nearly a year ago, just over ten-and-a-half months, 322 days to be exact, I wrote about the current landscape of the NBA¹ for the first time since the year prior; here’s to tradition, I suppose. Unlike last year, I won’t be nearly as professional as the issues I highlighted years ago that many fans have expressed for a decade at this point are seemingly not getting through to the entitled athletes that comprise today’s NBA. The media has finally highlighted the reality that nearly half the audience has stopped watching² since 2012; the players, ducking accountability as usual, have offered no tangible solution other than to blame fans and create podcasts to try and spin narratives about their careers.

Rather than continuing to push the level of competition seen in the past with the current playstyle, players instead take cues from the face of the association, the one who recently dismissed the title, stating he never wanted it³ nor asked for it despite tattooing “Chosen 1” on his back and petitioned to change the NBA age requirements in an attempt to get drafted before graduating⁴ high school; LeBron James. He discouraged Anthony Edwards from reaching new heights as the face of the NBA, stating that the media “shits all over” the current players, only to turn around weeks later on the Pat McAfee Show and claim that players before him just used their size and athleticism and didn’t think about the game on a deeper level; a criticism LeBron should be intimately familiar with as it’s something many have said about his playstyle for years⁵. McAfee also flat-out asked LeBron about his flopping, something that fans will frequently point out and criticize, but in a world where clients of LeBron’s Klutch Sports Group are talking heads on ESPN programming⁶, it’s something not usually mentioned as a massive negative against his legacy on actual mainstream programming. He lied, by the way, stating “over the last five, six years,” he was “in the bottom half of free throws attempts per game” to deflect the question, even though he’s never been outside the top 25 in free throw attempts per game, which is nowhere close to the bottom half of the NBA, and that’s without factoring in that he didn’t even play in enough games for three straight seasons from 2020-21 to 2022-23 to even qualify for the leaderboards in per game averages. Considering there are hours of compilations of him flopping on YouTube, his penchant for being photographed and recorded reading only the first page of a book, it’s worth questioning if he’s willing to lie about trivial matters to charade himself as an intellectual; what else is he lying about?

The year the mainstream media uses as the beginning of the steady decline in the audience, 2012, was the conclusion of the 2011-12 lockout season, with LeBron claiming his first title after vanquishing Kevin Durant’s Thunder in the NBA Finals as well as the start of the 2012-13 Heat winning a franchise-record 66 games; what does that implicitly tell you? After winning the 2014-15 championship at the expense of LeBron’s injured new superteam in Cleveland, in an attempt to prove their championship and the playstyle they employed to achieve it wasn’t a fluke, the Golden State Warriors approached every game of the 2015-16 regular season like a playoff game. They broke the regular season win record and came close to winning it all, only to choke the series away to a healthy Cavaliers team that underachieved during the regular season but had plenty of talent on the roster despite the media consistently downplaying LeBron’s supporting cast throughout his career. I recount that to ask, what was the reaction from both the press and fans alike when Durant left his team that he couldn’t win with to join the Warriors and do what LeBron had already done twice in forming a real superteam? It still is an overwhelmingly negatively received move; his lack of success since leaving the Warriors, as well as his delusion over the fans somehow being responsible⁷ for players’ load managing and chucking up threes, makes it easy to criticize him; it’s mostly a moot point though as the audience ratings stagnated with the realization that player entitlement was hitting an all-time high as they simultaneously morphed the game into a three-point shooting contest.

That attitude has infected the NBA and the media surrounding it now, and it’s made the players unlikable to the average American. ESPN probably wouldn’t be searching so hard for the face of the association if American players had stopped emulating NBA players during their formative years and stuck to the fundamentals, much like the star European players currently overtaking the NBA. Why does LeBron get the brunt of the blame at this point in the essay? He’s still propped up as one of the best stars in the NBA, all the while the media ignores his terrible defensive metrics, the Lakers routinely playing 4-on-5 on defense so that LeBron can cherry-pick wide-open dunks, his poor body language or poor sportsmanship. Opposing fans and the media condemn the Bad Boy Pistons for walking off the court without shaking hands in defeat to the Bulls during the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals; LeBron has routinely⁸ committed⁹ the same¹⁰ act¹¹ and, to my recollection, receives no criticism for it from the national media.

My point is if he insists on being called “king,” even crowning himself amongst deafening boos at the Super Bowl years ago, no doubt consoling his ego¹², then it’s under his reign that the NBA has sunk to the levels it has. In a podcast with who eventually became his next head coach, he called his teammates¹³ outside of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the 2010-11 Miami Heat “minimum guys,” despite being outscored by Dallas’ sixth man in the 2011 NBA Finals, only for his business partner and agent Rich Paul to make an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show to claim the Heatles were not¹⁴ a “big three,” wore a soft brace around his wrist after being swept in the 2018 NBA Finals and claimed he played with “basically a broken hand,” and spawned a sub-genre of YouTubers dedicated to exposing the truth about his game film¹⁵. Many will retort these arguments with a simple “hater” comment, but the reality is, those people likely don’t watch the games either, or even the highlights; besides, I’m simply presenting the potential context for what ultimately is statistical fact. If half the audience is gone, and it came during a time when the NBA was promoting him as the face of the association, then logically, he’s partially responsible and the primary player accountable for the disinterest in the association. Despite his popularity, he’s not well-liked¹⁶; these ratings are just a further reflection¹⁷ of that.

Truthfully, this essay would soar past my lengthiest work in word count if I went through LeBron’s entire history and painstakingly pointed out every instance worthy of criticism, on or off the court; however, as I stressed before, there’s a whole sub-genre of YouTubers steadfast in analyzing his game film and the media narratives surrounding him and exposing them for the lies that they are. LeBron has been in the spotlight long enough that nearly all his public statements are searchable on YouTube, or at least the internet in general; if you do some digging, there’s plenty of ammunition to form a conclusion about LeBron. Unless you want to appear completely detached from reality, it’s easy to admit that there’s plenty to criticize him over, most notably his consistent willingness to take the easiest path to a championship he can muster. I’ve asked people for nearly a decade now how LeBron can be the GOAT when he lost to Tim Duncan twice in the Finals, and I have yet to receive an adequate response to that question; it’s not about preserving Michael Jordan’s status, I don’t care if anyone thinks he’s the best basketball player of all time or not, it’s about making sure LeBron and Klutch Sports Group can’t further denigrate the history of the game with their lies.

Initially, I planned on wrapping the essay up in this paragraph; however, my procrastination allowed me to observe the NBA playoff progression. Unfortunately, my indifference has largely carried over from the regular season, as I haven’t watched even half of the playoff games. Still, I’ve been entertained enough with the proceedings thus far and have at least enjoyed the results after the fact when I haven’t watched the games. The stunning Knicks-Timberwolves trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York in exchange for Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle, something I initially believed weakened both teams after their regular season results, has paid dividends to both franchises. The Timberwolves’ return to the Western Conference Finals marks their first time with consecutive appearances in the Conference Finals, proving Edwards’ worth as a leader, something I hope he continues embracing as the media continues to delay his coronation as the face of the association in favor of a 40-year-old man who Edwards’ team just beat in five games as the lower seed in the first round.

While Edwards leads his talented team on a deep playoff run, the team on the other end of that trade, the Knicks, knocked off the defending champions and returned to the Conference Finals for the first time in 25 seasons. It’s difficult to claim the Knicks would eventually be capable of this with last season’s team, as they fell to the Pacers in the Semifinals, only for the Pacers to get swept by the Celtics in the Conference Finals; this year’s squad accomplished something no Knicks squad in the last quarter century could; set to rematch those same Pacers, who knocked out the Bucks for the second straight year and overcame the number-one seed in the East to get to this point. Both the Knicks and the Timberwolves made a bet on their star player, Edwards, for the Timberwolves and Jalen Brunson for the Knicks and made a move they believed best facilitated their success, bolstering the roster around Edwards in the Timberwolves’ case and clearing out roster space for a star secondary player in the Knicks’ case. The Pacers, to their credit, are a well-built team with years of chemistry between their players, and their star player, Tyrese Haliburton, has fully taken the reigns of the team and is forming his case alongside the other two aforementioned stars of this paragraph. It’s highly advantageous for the long-term health of the NBA that this generation of players is carving a name for themselves in the fashion they are; I look forward to how NBC and recently announced special contributor Michael Jordan use their broadcast rights¹⁸ to market this generation of stars for the years to come.

Jokić, Giannis, Curry, Tatum, and Butler, star players with a recurring presence in my work the last handful of seasons, maintain their relevancy amidst the swinging pendulum of parity. However, while Jokić continues proving why he’s one of, if not the best player in the NBA, his Nuggets were vanquished in the Western Conference Semifinals for the second year in a row, this time to a well-built Thunder squad that took their time to develop into the juggernaut they became this recently completed 2024-25 regular season, headed by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has likely claimed his first MVP award at Jokić’s expense; the future doesn’t appear much brighter for the rest of the names following Jokić on the list above. Tatum, unfortunately, tore his Achilles and will miss all of next season; Curry also got injured in these playoffs, and Butler didn’t show up for the Warriors against the Timberwolves after finally being dealt away from the Heat. Giannis announced his willingness for the Bucks to trade him, a move that will shake up the NBA when and if it happens, but that exact attitude is originally what made older fans roll their eyes and cause the audience to stop watching. In fairness, Giannis brought a championship to the Bucks and was an All-NBA talent for them for several seasons; he doesn’t owe the Bucks his undying loyalty; no NBA player does, but this AAU team-up culture repelled the audience to the point the NBA introduced a second apron¹⁹ to their luxury tax threshold in their newest CBA to curtail attempts at forming superteams.

The NBA must begin rinsing its self-entitled stench emanating from the past decade to recover from its self-inflicted wounds. Fortunately, it has the talent and the media contracts to make it a reality; however, perhaps for the first time under Adam Silver’s reign as NBA Commissioner, he needs to consider the fans and make some changes regarding the level of physicality allowed in the game. The fans are more attracted to games where the intensity is palpable, hence why playoff viewership is higher than the regular season, but it’s at the point where no one takes the regular season seriously; players don’t need to treat every game like a playoff game, but it’d be nice if they were allowed to hand check²⁰ and if franchises didn’t prioritize their players attempting 13-and-a-half more threes on average in these last ten seasons in comparison to the ten seasons prior. There hasn’t even been a stabilizing trend in NBA-wide average three-point shooting percentage to suggest these shots are necessary²¹; players took more three-pointers than ever before this past season, averaging 37.6 three-point attempts association-wide, yet the average points per game scored by every team dipped from 114.2 to 113.8 as three-point percentage decreased from 36.6% to 36.0%; what’s so entertaining about a bunch of missed three-pointers²²? I understand the math and logic behind it, and offensive half-court sets are finding interesting ways to showcase players’ skills in this era of positionless basketball and free movement; the reality is that a bunch of missed three-pointers has proven to be disinteresting with the audience.

It’s unlikely and unwarranted for the NBA to institute rule changes to force players to revert to a more physical style of basketball. Perhaps with the leadership displayed by the NBA’s young stars, players entering now will begin naturally adopting a more physical mindset when approaching the game. Luka Dončić said years ago it was easier to score in the NBA than²³ in the Euroleague; while he hasn’t won a title in the NBA after winning a title in just three seasons in the Euroleague, his claims show the difference in approaching the game between continents and how scoring has become inflated in the NBA. Nobody is asking for the return of iso-ball long two-point shot attempts, but doesn’t it seem absurd that at least 50 players have averaged 20 or more points per game in the last three seasons when only 15 players averaged 20 or more points per game in 2014-15? This number has always naturally varied season-by-season, but from 2004-05 to 2006-07, that number hovered between 26 and 28 players; between 1994-95 and 1996-97, that number hovered between 22 and 25 players; in 2003-04, it remained in that range at 22, despite zone defense being legal as of two seasons prior. I’m not advocating for the NBA to abolish the three-point line or for players to stop developing their offensive skill sets; I am asking for NBA franchises to stop obsessing over the three-pointer. It would help if the media took better care in showcasing the talent around the association rather than focusing all their attention on the Lakers, but ESPN already dug their grave as a source of credible analysis years ago; here’s to hoping Amazon and NBC restore some prestige to the association.

Editor’s Notes

1. Havarti – 7/1/2024 – A Nonchalant NBA Critique
2. Outkick – 12/20/2024 – Mainstream Media Finally Agrees With OutKick: The NBA Ratings Cannot Be Defended
3. Los Angeles Times – 2/28/2025 – LeBron James gets why Anthony Edwards doesn’t want to be face of NBA: ‘There’s this weird energy’
4. SI Vault – 2/18/2002 – Ahead of His Class: Ohio high school junior LeBron James is so good that he’s already being mentioned as the heir to Air Jordan
5. YouTube/UnCommon Cents – 3/29/2025 – LEBRON JAMES Says EX NBA Players Were NOT THAT SMART Some Were Just Bigger Stronger and Faster
6. Youtube/The Colin Cowherd Podcast – 6/2/2022 – Nick Wright responds to Draymond + Kyrie-LeBron on Lakers? + Celtics letdown | Colin Cowherd Podcast (23:28-23:30)
7. YouTube/The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis – 2/26/2025 – Kevin Durant on Warriors-Suns trade veto, Steph Curry & BEST NBA era | Draymond Green & Baron Davis (45:10)
8. ESPN – 8/11/2009 – James defends not shaking hands
9. The Sports Daily – 6/11/2018 – Twitter skewers LeBron James for walking off court without shaking hands
10. Fadeaway World – 6/4/2021 – LeBron James Leaves Game Instantly, Refuses To Shake Hands After First-Round Loss
11. Yardbarker – 4/30/2024 – LeBron James Walks Off The Court Without Shaking Hands With Jokic, Murray And Other Nuggets Players
12. USA Today – 2/13/2023 – LeBron James was booed at the Super Bowl, so naturally he put on an imaginary crown
13. Fadeaway World – 4/3/2024 – LeBron James Complains Miami Heat Didn’t Have Enough Talent To Win 2011 NBA Title
14. Complex – 4/16/2025 – Fans Call Out Rich Paul For Saying LeBron, Wade, and Bosh Weren’t Really a ‘Big 3’ on the Miami Heat
15. Youtube/Angry Old Hoops Fan – Playlists
16. Forbes – 12/28/2016 – Lebron James Is AP’s Male Athlete Of 2016, Yet Still The Most Hated Of All Time
17. Forbes – 5/27/2022 – LeBron James Is The Most Hated Player In The NBA, According To Twitter
18. NBA – 5/12/2025 – Michael Jordan joins NBC as special contributor to its NBA coverage
19. Yahoo! Sports – 6/29/2024 – NBA offseason: What is the CBA’s second apron? And how does it limit high-spending teams?
20. NBA Video Rulebook – Handcheck
21. Basketball Reference – NBA League Averages – Per Game
22. The Ringer – 4/2/2025 – Missed 3s Are Taking Over the NBA. Where Should the League Draw the Line?
23. Eurohoops.net – 2/8/2019 – Luka Doncic: It’s easier to score in the NBA than in Europe