One of the many criticisms aimed at LeBron James over the years is that he doesn’t have that Mamba Mentality and his agent Rich Paul recently spoke about it.
“Everybody didn’t always have the Mamba Mentality,” Paul said on Club Shay Shay. “The Mamba Mentality came after Kobe (Bryant) was really done. Then all of a sudden everyone had the Mamba Mentality.”
Shannon Sharpe and Paul pointed out how so many disliked the way Bryant conducted himself for much of his career. He was in fact criticized for how he went about doing things as he was so aloof, and it was only toward the end of his career that Kobe’s antics were glorified.
Sharpe then spoke about how Bryant and Michael Jordan were never really nice to other players and wondered if James was too nice to everyone.
“Too nice,” Paul stated. “… Familiarity breeds disrespect and I tell him that sometimes. They can walk past somebody and don’t even speak. That make that person want to speak to you more. If you speak to that person every time, it becomes — that’s the treatment he gets sometimes.”
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Paul said it wasn’t just a basketball thing, as that’s what happens in life. Jordan and Kobe created an aura around themselves by keeping everyone at arm’s length, while LeBron has never been that way. The 38-year-old is very approachable to players and, hence, doesn’t tend to get placed on the same pedestal as those two.
Rich Paul Pinpointed When LeBron James Started Getting Hate
Paul and James have been close friends for over two decades at this point, and there isn’t anyone who knows LeBron’s story better than he does. During this episode, Paul shared when he believed James started to get hate.
“When LeBron came in, a lot of guys were still in their prime, and all the attention turned to him in 2000. Since all the attention, boom, $100 million contract.”
“They never seen nothing like that. You know Jay-Z, sending the private jet. When he sending high school, we going up to New York every weekend.”
There would certainly be a sense of jealousy when you see this teenager who hadn’t done anything in the league get all this attention. It’s just how human beings are wired and it maybe does play a part in some of the former players being so critical of him.
To LeBron’s credit, he showed very quickly that all the hype was well deserved, and he continues to dominate on the court even today with the Los Angeles Lakers. So far this season, James is averaging 23.0 points, 10.3 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game.
Gregg Popovich Would Get Angry Because Of LeBron James’ Haters
Another man who has seen James up and close for a long time now is San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. He saw very early on, that James would get unwarranted criticism, and last year, Popovich spoke about his anger toward LeBron’s haters.
“It used to anger me when he first came in. If he made a pass, somebody said, ‘He should’ve shot it.’ If he shot the ball, it was, ‘He should’ve passed it.’ It really would anger me. They would just deal with the negative. It was a fake negative, in a way. The guy was doing everything great and handling himself great. Young kid with all of that attention and doing what he was doing. I just thought he was wonderful.”
The focus has so often been on the negative as Popovich points out. Many just tried to find ways to be critical of James and we see that even today. Everything he does is scrutinized and every little mistake gets amplified.
I obviously don’t want to make it sound like he never gets praise because he does get a lot of it, but the criticism really gets out of hand at times.
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