Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has been criticized his entire career. One of the narratives that have been spewed out against the four-time NBA champ is that he has a tendency to chase stats. If you ask former NBA superstar Gilbert Arenas, though, he believes that there's absolutely no truth to his.
Speaking in a recent interview, Arenas explained why he firmly believes that LeBron is no stat-padder (h/t Jonathan Sherman of Lakers Daily):
“I said, ‘LeBron is probably the only player, the only superstar that never had that year,'” Arenas said. “He never had that year where he says, ‘Eh, frick everybody. I’m trying to get my stats.’ Because I said, ‘If he ever did that, who’s stopping him?’ That man would average 40-something.”
The man has a point here. It does seem that if LeBron really wanted to, he could easily average more than 40 points per game — and that's in the present, at age 37. A clear testament to this fact is how he averaged a career-best 30.3 points per game last season, just falling short of leading the NBA in scoring. And he did that in Year 19. Imagine how many points he could have averaged earlier in his career if he really set his mind on this sole objective.
This has not been the case for LeBron, though. According to Arenas, it's all about winning for LeBron James:
“When LeBron stepped in, it was all about trying to win a championship,” he continued. “Every year, trying to win a championship, so he’s been building the teams to try to win championships, so he’s never actually had a selfish year where he says, ‘I don’t need anybody. I want to show the world what I can do.'”
It's definitely another title that's on LeBron's mind for the upcoming season. The Lakers have been through back-to-back years in oblivion and there's no denying that James wants to bring this team back to glory. Whether or not he succeeds with this lofty objective, however, remains to be seen.
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