Isiah Thomas Gives The Real Reason Why People Hate LeBron James

We’d normally be abuzz with preseason and training camp talk around this time but you already know how it goes by now. As Blake Griffin tweeted: First day of training camp finally here can’t wait for… Oh what’s that NBA owners? You won’t let us play? Sorry everybody… On the morning of the start of training camps last year, what was everyone doing? Checking for photos of new J.R. Smith tattoos or seeing how long it might take Boris Diaw to get in shape or even to get some funky quote from Ron Artest or Stephen Jackson. Now this year? The gyms around the league look pretty vacant. Talks are still going on so anything can happen. They met for damn near seven hours yesterday, but still came out of it saying that it was all setting the table for today (so what exactly were they doing for seven hours?!). But what would you do if the whole season went to dust? College hoops would have to suffice but it’d still be a huge buzzkill. We at least gave you the official strategy guide to surviving the lockout. Still, the NBA’s finally in a transitional state with multiple title contenders and rivalries hanging in the balance. It’s been said before but it’s odd and inopportune to see things stall right when the league is coming off one of the most intriguing seasons in some time … By Sports Illustrated‘s estimation, there are more issues at hand than initially perceived. An interesting quote from Adam Silver suggests the NBA and the NBAPA have a laundry list of stipulations to work out after negotiating the cap and revenue problem. Silver didn’t go into detail on the “B-list” hang ups but we hope they get ironed out. The season obviously won’t start by Nov. 1 at this point but we’re still getting antsy out here … The tension is thick, so thick that Baron Davis is feeling the need to dress like a lumberjack: “I’m funny looking, so that helps ease the tension.” Yes, yes you are, Baron … Keep reading to hear why everyone hates LeBron so much…

ESPN’s Henry Abbott wrote a piece on the perceived value of an NBA star in light of recent labor talks and how a one star per team scenario would make teams more competitive. His stance would be sound if we had a premiere talent for each team. The NBA talent pool is very thin. As a matter of fact, it’s probably the thinnest it’s been in years. Anyway, players of Kobe, Wade and Durant‘s level obviously aren’t plentiful. Plus there’s always the threat of seeing notable players fall off for whatever reason, not to mention there’d have to be a system in place to properly categorize franchise players. Whatever, all this stuff still wouldn’t fix the problem of teams not being in any kind of contention year-round. Some front offices still won’t be as savvy as others no matter what the new rules suggest … They say hate comes with the territory of gaining success. With success breeds envy. Your success took a shot at you. And so Isiah Thomas, in all his eternal wisdom (Isiah might not know much about certain things, but he does know hate), said LeBron’s success is just the reason why heads don’t take too kindly to Mr. James. We have a hard time buying that with “The Decision,” his perceived demeanor and the fact that he hasn’t won a chip despite being billed as the next great thing in pro ball. Success does play a part in all this. There are very few people who can relate to someone like LeBron. That creates misunderstanding. Misunderstanding creates annoyance. Annoyance eventually creates hate or even jealously. We’re not proponents of the hate, even though he obviously brought much of it on himself. So while his “success” brings some derision like any other NBA star, it’s far from the exact root of the cause. The real question is how long will all of this last? Trust us when we say that once Miami wins a title (and they have a great shot at doing it this year), they will be singing a different tune for LeBron. He’s fallen so far that a triumph will raise him incredibly high. Every transcendent player goes through this: there’s the love of early success, then the storm of dealing with expectations and pressure and then eventually the summit where everything seems to turn into peaches and cream … How good is LeBron exactly? We aren’t completely sure, but one writer thinks he’s at least definitely better than Kevin Durant … And we know some of the fans are up in arms over the NBA 2K12 ratings. But so is Michael Beasley. It’s not what you expect though. When asked about his 78 rating, B-Easy actually said “That’s higher than I thought” … We’re out like the wait for 2K12.