The 4 most scrutinized players in the NBA right now

1. LeBron James

Was there ever going to be anybody else? Even after 17 seasons, three NBA championships and continued and sustained excellence, LeBron James is still the one player who above all others receives criticism on a level that nobody else, not even Kevin Durant (another area he finishes second to him in I guess) does.

But why? Well, as we’ve said already, the more success you have, the more people want to tear you down. LeBron is the NBA, and as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, he’s in the biggest market and therefore has the largest target on his back. Some of the flack went away when he won his first title with the Miami Heat. Then a lot more did when he got one for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But “The Last Dance” documentary on Jordan has only stoked the fires once more. Instead of just appreciating all the James can and has done, and he’s certainly much closer to the end of his career than the start, fans instead want to draw a line in the sand and align themselves with either Team Jordan or Team LeBron.

There can never be another Jordan, because nobody can ever transcend the sport the way that he did. That moment has come and gone. Countless others were anointed as the successor to Jordan, and essentially all of them failed (Kobe Bryant coming the closest, while also copying Jordan more than any of the others ever did).

James was touted as the next Jordan while still in high school, and then not only came as close as anybody ever has to delivering, but he did so while keeping out of the media for the wrong reasons, founding a school and bringing that aforementioned title back to Cleveland. Maybe you think he surpassed Jordan in the process, and if so that’s your opinion and that’s great.

But to make it an actual conversation people have on who is the better player is enough. James did it. He climbed the mountain and he did it his way. Yet there are those who will never be happy, and they are many and they are loud. If he wins a title this season, in whatever form the playoffs take, people would put a note beside it because the season was appreciated.

These are the same people who did the same thing when James won with “The Heatles” in Miami, and with Kyrie Irving (Scottie Pippen) and Kevin Love (Dennis Rodman) in Cleveland. If he somehow wins seven titles before he’s done, surpassing Jordan, people will say it was because of Anthony Davis. Which is the point.

It’ll never be enough, and it never has been, yet James keeps winning.