LeBron James Racked Up 1.3 BILLION Views This Season Across The NBA's Social Platforms, Easily The Most Among All Players
I'm relatively new here, but it doesn't elude my grasp of basic comprehension that Barstool Sports is a LeBron James Hate Factory. No shit. A media empire founded in Boston, where the Celtics reside. Color me shocked that the vast majority of writers before me and contemporaries do anything they can to discredit LeBron's greatness. I get it.
...And then I see something like this and I can't help but laugh at everyone who has nothing better to do than to clack away in the comments sections and social media threads about how bad LeBron James is at basketball. Somehow, he's still kicking in Year 20, setting the all-time scoring record despite being a clear pass-first player, and bringing in social media views at a stunningly higher clip than any of the sport's ascending superstars.
I couldn't fit this into the headline partially because his name is too long, but honestly, a separate blog could be written about the fact that Victor Wembanyama — who, you know, hasn't even played in the NBA yet — ranks eighth on this list. If Portland wins the draft lottery, I might pack my shit up and move out there just so I can cover a Wemby-Dame duo full-time.
OK so are we good? Can I chat a little more about LeBron now? Or are y'all gonna be too butthurt about it?
It's legitimately amazing to see the extreme reactions LeBron brings out of his haters and biggest fans alike. I don't know how a player this all-around great for this many years can inspire such a polarizing debate. He hasn't had one single awful scandal despite being in the spotlight since he was an early teenager. At every turn where it could've been easy for him to pack it in and cave after demoralizing setbacks, LeBron instead rose up, continued to improve, and kept thriving on the biggest stages.
Assuming the Lakers win their play-in game against Minnesota, we're about to get such a fun playoff bracket in the Western Conference. It really is anybody's to win. I'd consider the Suns the big favorite since they have Kevin Durant, but LeBron's Lakers and the Warriors are lurking. And speaking of which, Steph Curry is impressive in his own right for ranking second on the NBA social views list. Let's face it, he's pretty late in his career, too — albeit not quite to LeBron's 20th season.
Regardless of how the postseason unfolds, whenever LeBron and the Lakers take the floor, they're going to generate so much engagement, entertainment value, casual fan interest and even more NBA social views. Whether you're hoping for a fifth LeBron championship, or rooting for him to succumb to the Max Kellerman Cliff Theory, you'll be hanging on every single possession. LeBron is in Year 20. His time is almost up. The stakes and legacy implications are massive.
This pro-LeBron rant from a couple months ago by JJ Redick started making the rounds again yesterday, and well...if you're angry with me and can't stand anything that paints LeBron in a positive light whatsoever, don't take my word for it. Take it from somebody who PLAYED IN THE LEEEEEEEAGUE and knows firsthand:
Advertisement
That's the thing. No amount of fact-spitting or objective truth will get in the way of millions upon millions of people hating LeBron for……………….
………..reasons?
Again, I'm excluding the Boston demographic from this. But you get what I mean.
Funny thing. People seem to keep watching LeBron in spite of it all. I suspect it's because deep down they know they are witnessing greatness on a scale they could only dream of. Or they do their utmost to zoom in, nitpick, micro-analyze and look for faults that aren't even there, yet blast their ignorant opinions out into the void anyway.
What was it our fearless leader El Pres echoed once again regarding the recent Mean Girls controversy? Numbers never lie. Neither did the pageviews when I poked fun at their take on how to say mythological/mythical creatures…
It says something about THE SOCIETY WE LIVE IN that so many people didn't bother to read past the headline, much less the text of the blog, and clicked anyway to either eviscerate me in the comments or light me up on a Twitter thread.
I reckon some of the same closed-minded fools take these hardline anti-LeBron stances instead of digging a little deeper and finding that, hmm, maybe…yeah. He's actually pretty good. And not — my favorite commenter word — "INSUFFERABLE."
Either way…1.3 billion NBA social views via one LeBron James. Read 'em and weep.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok