Rick Kamla had another rant at LeBron James yesterday and I have to say that I agree with almost everything that Rick says. The latest quotes regarding the scoring title don’t matter so much to me — it is more that he has built up a history of arrogance and shown a lack of respect for his fans and the rest of the league. The attention-seeking “I’m retiring #23 for the whole league” scenario, along with the spotlight-grabbing “I’m declaring myself in the 2010 Dunk Contest” quote, only to pull out, were selfish moves by James. Eventually he needs to learn to not think about marketing and hyping himself and think about giving back to the people that ultimately pay his salary: his fans.
Kobe Bryant gave up his arrogance over time as he matured. He gained a lot more respect along the way. I was one of the Kobe-haters back in the day. But finally (and amazingly given my former stance), he has grown on me. He respects his teammates, he respects the league and most importantly when he talks on camera he is respectful to his fans and fellow competitors (see his handling of the Shaq sagas).
Check out Rick’s Rant on NBATV:
