Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is without a doubt one of the most polarizing personalities in all of the NBA. He's the most popular player in the planet right now, but he definitely also has his fair share of haters and naysayers.
Blake Griffin of the Brooklyn Nets recently came to the defense of LeBron over how much hate he received when he joined the Miami Heat in 2010. Griffin even had to invoke the Boston Celtics' championship-winning Big 3 in order to make his point against LeBron's critics:
“I think it’s really funny. You know how everybody really s— on LeBron. LeBron was kind of the first guy that everybody s— on for joining — the [Boston] Celtics did it,” Griffin said, via Sam Leweck of Heat Nation. “They brought K.G. (Kevin Garnett) and Ray Allen to team up with Paul Pierce.”
Griffin was a guest on JJ Redick's Old Man & The Three podcast when he argued his case, to which Redick responded with a resounding counterpunch:
“Yeah, but I’ve said this before, and I’ll stick by it,” Redick said. “The Celtics did it by front office, right? It wasn’t — the LeBron thing sort of set off this player empowerment era. By linking up with D-Wade (Dwyane Wade) and Chris Bosh, and we’re all going to go to the same place together, having these conversations behind closed doors with USA Basketball, whatever it may be. Whereas with the Celtics, it was Danny Ainge the mastermind, up in the front office, putting up the superteam.”
Fair points from both Griffin and Redick here. What is clear, though, is that both the Celtics and the Heat found ultimate success after they built their respective superteams. Incidentally, LeBron James has another one of those in LA right now, and he's definitely gunning for his fifth NBA title with his fresh-look lakers in the upcoming season.
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