This was too good.  Of all the versions of Lebron that exist, GM Lebron might be his biggest moron act of all.  Nobody, and I mean nobody, who considers themselves knowledgeable about basketball, gets caught up with the hype immediately in front of them without having any vision of the big picture whatsoever more so than GM Lebron.  If there is one area I fully support Lebron/MJ comparisons, it is regarding their player evaluation skills.  That being said, the guy who famously used the first overall pick on Kwame Brown and was reportedly head over heels for Frank Kaminsky might even have a slight edge over GM Lebron. 

One of Lebron’s greatest aspects is that because he is so good at basketball and wields so much power over the teams he plays for (because he is a disloyal snake who will leave any franchise in the dust without blinking), he thinks that he knows more than the front office personnel running the organization (Pat Riley excluded, maybe).  Because of this, he threatens them into making the decisions he wants regarding player personnel.  I have a theory that the combination of GM Lebron along with egomaniac player Lebron, who takes all the glory and passes along all the blame, is the reason that there has never been a young player who has developed into an all-star caliber role during Lebron’s 14 years in the Association.  Like literally, not one. 

This should not be viewed as coincidence.  For all the well deserved acclaim Lebron gets for being selfless and fun to play with on the floor, people often falsely associate that with Lebron being a good teammate to have in the locker room.  In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth, as evidenced by him alienating Kevin Love in recent years and Kyrie Irving’s desire to get as far away from him as fucking possible.  Along with all the passive aggressive shots he has taken at teammates over the years in interviews and social media. 

Jordan was never the same as Lebron as a player.  I mean, Jordan hated Jerry Krause and thought he was a shmuck, but Jordan never tried to threaten Krause into making the player personnel decisions he wanted because, A) He was singularly focused on the game and possessed a mentality that he was able to beat anybody regardless of who he was playing with, and B) the thought of leaving the Bulls was always unrealistic to him, regardless of how he felt about Krause.  So there was never that power wielding “I’m going to leave unless you do this and this” bullshit that Lebron is known for. 

Jordan was tough as a mother fucker on his teammates, but always led by example, and aided the development of the guys around him by lifting the collective work ethic of the team because of how badly he tried to out-work everybody else, and also by taking pressure off his teammates on the floor.  However, this mentality, along with being a questionable at best evaluator of talent, has hurt him as an owner.  He is rumored to have mentally broken down the very raw and immature Kwame Brown well before he had any chance of developing into the caliber of player Jordan hoped he would become when he used the first overall pick on him. 

Lebron, on the other hand, will never take personal accountability the way Jordan and most other superstars do.  Rather, when things aren’t going well, he usually runs to the media about how he needs more talent around him.  Yes, the same guy, who leaves teams in the dust for teams that offer him the best chance of winning a title.  This is why it was no surprise to see Kyrie want to get the hell up out of Cleveland after Lebron conveniently did nothing to dispel the scapegoat label he got after the Warriors dusted the Cavs in the Finals.  As opposed to Wade and Bosh in the past, Kyrie never signed up for that shit, and he wanted no part of it when he saw it come to fruition first hand.  Kyrie’s dominance in the 2016 Finals was always well overshadowed by Lebron becoming some sort of Cleveland demigod, but him missing a potential game winning shot in the 2017 Finals was the bigger story than Lebron hiding at half court, petrified to even go near the ball after watching KD hit a dagger in his eye the play before. 

The only players who have ever thrived alongside Lebron James have been his well-established buddies who were (mostly) already all-star caliber before he arrived.  This list includes Wade, Bosh, Ray Allen, Battier, Kyrie, Love at times, Thompson at times, Big Z back in the day, and maybe another player or two I’m forgetting.  But not once has a young player come into the league on a Lebron-led team and come out the other side as an all-star level talent (editor's note: that new Nike commercial where the kid goes from the streets, to Duke, to the Cavs, realistically he'd be fucked). 

This is largely due to the fact that Lebron James has no regard for the big picture as the players he demands his team to acquire are usually established veterans he knows of like: Ray Allen, Mike Miller, Kyle Korver, Shane Battier, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose, etc.  Some more helpful than others, all well established in the league as major contributors at one point or another in their career.  But it’s also largely because he is God-awful at evaluating young players who require time to develop because he is blinded by the hype immediately in front of his face.  This was never more evident than him calling Shabazz Napier his favorite player in the 2014 draft (ahead of Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, etc.),  forcing Miami to trade up for him in the draft to get him in a desperate heave to convince Lebron to stay put in Miami. 

Lebron left and Napier only lasted one year in Miami and is currently a bench warmer on his 3rd NBA team.  I put up the tweet in which Lebron declared his fascination of Napier in 2014 on our Instagram and Twitter (@the_leknicks), by the way, shortly after seeing Lebron express his love for Dennis, after which the tweet went viral, so I’m going to take a lot of credit for that (editor's note: delusions of grandeur).  The guy also intimidated the Cavs into dealing away first overall pick Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, was the mastermind behind bringing in big name scrubs like Derrick Rose and Deron Williams, among countless other examples of GM Lebron making stupid basketball decisions based solely on the hype directly in front of him at the time. 

The list of young players to never pan out around GM Lebron goes on and on, as he overlooks the developmental aspects of growing into an all-star caliber player, and hinders that process by deflecting blame in high pressure situations on his teammates.  It also certainly doesn’t help when he hijacks his team’s front office into relying on established veterans for supporting roles as opposed to developing younger players who might really benefit and grow from the experience.  This is why the Heat were left in shambles when he left, as the Cavs were in 2010 and probably will be again if/when he leaves this summer. 

So when GM Lebron sees a hyped up player he knows very well (Dennis Smith Jr. (editor's note: not saying we don't like him, he's a major friend of the podcast, this is a simple anti-LeBron stance)) putting up big stats for an awful team, and decides he likes him more than the raw youngster with tons of potential but less flash who is helping his team win ball games (Franky), I mean it when I say I am not in the least bit surprised or concerned.  As a matter of fact, I was basically ecstatic when I received the news. 

Knicks Defense of Ntilikina: