hate
verb
transitive verb
2: to have a strong aversion to : find very distasteful <hated to have to meet strangers> <hate hypocrisy>
Hate is a powerful word. Hate is a powerful emotion. You can move and motivate people on the emotion of hate. Break down the teams you love and root for in each sport. Now look at the teams you loathe, the teams you love to see fail. Was there a single person in all of God’s green earth, outside of New England, that wanted the Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII in 2007? As a fan of an NFC East team, I will tell you straight up that fans of other teams in the NFC East were moved to pull for the Giants to beat the Patriots that year. Why? Why would fans of rival teams pull for that team they would never root for in other games? Hate. Let’s be honest, anyone outside of the true Northeast absolutely hate Bill Belicheat. A lot of fans hate Tom Brady. Some fans even hated Teddy Bruschi.
People, and more specifically fans, have varied reasons to hate a player, team and/or coach. Just think of the reasons why you hate the teams you do. Think of the reasons why you hate certain players. Well, I want to focus in on one player that has gotten a lot of hate this year. Ok, so I already ruined the suspense with that picture above. So, without further adieu…….[building suspense]……let’s talk about Queen King James, a.k.a. LaBron James.
I’ve been wanting to talk about this subject for awhile but with the NFL creating daily headlines, I haven’t been able to do so. I was listening to sports radio back when the NBA season was about to ramp up and the hosts were talking about how fans of the NBA have put away their hate of LaBron James and would probably end up rooting for him this year. This got me to think, who are these jokers talking about/for? Everybody I have talked to still want him to lose. I will be honest with you all, I really liked LeBron when he first came into the league. The only negative thing I wanted to see was him fail to live up to Michael Jordan’s star. You see, I am a Chicago Bulls fan and I am a Bulls fan first and foremost because of His Airness. But, unlike many disgraceful fans who jumped off the bandwagon when MJ retired for the 2nd time (I still don’t count his years in a Wizards uniform) I stuck with the Bulls and always will. Now, I do admit that I am nowhere near as big of an NBA fan now as I was growing up. But the Lakers-Celtics “rivalry” of late and Derrick Rose have really gotten me back into the game. At least a little during the season and a lot during the playoffs.
But let’s get back to LeBron. I, just like many fans, started hating him when he rubbed it into the whole city of Cleveland’s faces when he declared on ESPN that he was “taking his talents to South Beach”. And then the guy claimed this was fine because he donated all proceeds to charity. Are you freaking kidding me? So, let me get this straight. If I got my wife, my family, her family and my mistress in the same room and declared I was taking my talents to my mistress but said it was all cool because I was going to be little Sammy’s Big Brother, that totally justifies my decision?!?! Look, LeBron had every right to leave Cleveland. I don’t think anybody blames him. But to do it on national tv and then expect everybody to just love him? Who in the name of Ben & Jerry does he think he is? And I just love how there were some former players and sports tv personalities defending this. There is a thing called etiquette. And even if you follow that, you can guarantee that the city you left will hate you. But to just think all of America will just roll with it is pretty absurd.
This brings me to the guys on the radio. My level of “hatred” towards the Queen is just as much today as it was back when he made his stupid decision. In fact, his mocking of Dirk Nowitzki being sick in the Finals last year just pissed me off more. He needs to grow up before he can be considered a true leader. I have to say, until the day he hangs it up, I will be there to cheer for him to lose. I really want him to go down in history as a great player that couldn’t hack it when it mattered…that would rather pass the ball than try to shoot the final shot for the win. Now, I’m not an idiot. I know Miami has a really good team, but it’s “anybody but Miami” for me until he declares his talents are going elsewhere. So am I correct? Am I off point? Let me know where you stand on this and if you did hate him last year, if you still feel the same way…
