After bringing an NBA title home for his beloved Cleveland Cavaliers following an epic championship run in 2016, LeBron James was pretty much able to redeem himself from his ill-received decision to leave the Cavs for the Miami Heat back in 2010.
Nearly a decade following his infamous “The Decision” chapter, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar now reflects on what exactly was running through his mind as the entire basketball world all of a sudden painted him as public enemy No. 1 following his alleged betrayal of his home town of Cleveland.
“It was about doing something that had never been done before … was going to raise lots of money to help people, and doing something that allowed LeBron to decide how he was going to change teams and tell his message the way he wanted to.”
On this day in 2010: The Decision pic.twitter.com/rnOJv4NPge
— Andscape (@andscape) July 8, 2019
LeBron was brutally honest about how this type of backlash had an adverse effect on a young 25-year-old man who was absolutely defaced by the mainstream media.
“Whatever the case may be, I was 25-years-old and I wanted to be liked by everybody,” explained LeBron. “So that's why the emotions was there. So you like, ‘Oh my god.' All these stories are out there about me being selfish, which is the last thing that I am. And I used to read a lot of that dumb shit, too. I'm young, I'm 25, 26, whatever, and I think that stuff matters. Wathcing the TV shows and all that stuff. What you read, what you listen to it affects you, you know, if you allow it to.”
James went on to share how shocked he was with all the negative criticism and outright hate he received after deciding to take his talents to South Beach.
“So from the time we landed in Miami, that first night when we got there, like whatever time it was, we went to The W [hotel], I was like, ‘Fuck! What the hell just happened?'” James exclaimed.
Thankfully for him, he was able to use all this as fuel to become one of the greatest players this sport has ever seen. It was definitely not easy, but at this point, LeBron has definitely moved on from that horrific experience.
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