THE HERD | Colin Cowherd RIPS Lebron For HURTING Los Angeles Lakers With HUGE Salary | NBA
my entire career but but there are a couple of things recently that he’s done that give his critics and there’s a lot of them mj’s always been more popular that’s not even disputable and I would say about 75 to 80% of the people think MJ’s the GOAT not LeBron but he’s done something recently i saw yesterday where he picked up his 52.6 million Laker option and in the press release well LeBron wants to win titles well then you can’t pick up the option you can’t play for $52 million it’s a hard cap now no owner’s going to blow through it so first of all he got into that silly ring debate about uh two weeks ago where he talked about something that he didn’t truly believe which is the ring culture it’s overemphasized and then the piece of video emerged of LeBron saying after he won in Cleveland hey that ring I think make me the greatest of all time well I thought I thought the ring culture is overemphasized rings matter to everybody including LeBron and he knows it but he’s not as popular as MJ the numbers we remember about Michael are six for six and Michael is considered the GOAT by a lot of people uh including some notable people like a Phil Jackson um and that’s just the reality of it okay it is and Michael’s much more popular his shoes still leading sellers they’re like collector’s items and they still sell um and so the reality is that debate was silly it was projection and then the second thing is you know LeBron’s always been hey I’m about winning which I’ve always argued he he plays winning basketball he elevates teammates he’s like a more athletic Magic Johnson but then when you do this knowing the Lakers need at least two centers two that’s what Oklahoma City has you know that’s what the Knicks have uh that’s what you know the better teams in the league they’ve got a couple of bigs by the way Denver drafted a bigg he got hurt but they’ll have two next year like you’ve got to have bigs and the Lakers have one and the coach JJ Reic doesn’t want to play him so they need two centers dorian Finny Smith is opting out they need two wing defenders then and you can’t do it if all if you’re if you’re taking maxes cuz they got to pay Luca this summer and Austin Reeves just declined money and they take they tell everybody they love Austin Reeves and so you’re going to have to pay LeBron and he’s opting in for 52.6 million so again what is it are you about winning because I’ve seen Otani take pay cuts and Josh Allen and Tom Brady and Tim Duncan and Jaylen Brunson that’s about winning tom did it for winning he was the best quarterback in the world and he kept taking pay cuts so you’re going to have to pay Luca and I’m told you’re going to pay eventually Austin Reeves so if if LeBron is opted in it’s not a championship team yeah um I’m not so sure Otani took necessarily a pay cut per se okay i don’t know if we could necessarily look at it that through that lens but um yeah I mean I understand what Colin’s saying although it’s kind of funny where it’s like that video emerged you know emerged about when he won he said that he was the best and it’s like I mean that was a very popular clip it’s not like that just kind of came out of nowhere randomly like people like dug it up and they were like “Oh my god did you see this clip this is where he contra,” you know and it’s like we’ve we’ve known that we’ve seen that clip a billion times uh so that’s that’s been around for quite some time but um yeah listen I I I do agree right you you can’t take this insane amount of money and then be like you got to make moves i I want to play winning basketball because the NBA is not like the NFL where you can kind of like build in the draft especially when you’re trying to win now right like even even on like a even if you look at the you know the NBA or basketball a basketball team on like a three-year window where you’re like starting today we have an amazing player right we have a prime LeBron James 28 years old um we need to build a team around him and we you know within the next two three years we got to seriously compete for rings you wouldn’t even really able to do that in the draft you’re not going to draft an 18-year-old 19year-old and uh you know in a c in a couple years have him be this big impact player like it just doesn’t work that way just doesn’t work that way i you draft a 20-year-old 21 year old and it’s still in a couple years it’s like yeah he could he can help he can be like kind of supportive but like you’re not going to trust him in in a huge moment i mean this is what we see again and again and again and again and again so you do have to you know work with free agency trades you do have to pay these players legitimate money so it’s like if you want to win and you’re looking at LeBron right now his window because people can talk about some of these other players uh you know the SGAAs you know essentially the younger players and it’s going to be it’s going to be different because they do have the time to build players in the draft to to to kind of you know uh to to to pay someone to to sign a big contract that then ideally over time ages a little bit better um but if you’re looking at LeBron James and you’re like “Bro we got one year two years left to really go for it if that is the case well then yeah taking the maximum amount of money that you can get it’s just typically not going to work it’s just not and even in football the first round pick second round third round pick can be players that make a really big impact very quickly they might not become me they might not be mega superstars year one but in the NFL like you can draft someone who can immediately if this was basketball can be immediately be your number two number three number four number five certainly at sixman off the bench like immediately and like someone that you can actually for the most part trust now in the playoffs even whereas even a player who hits the hits the hits the ground running in the WNBA in the WNBA I make a lot of WNBA videos too but in the NBA uh once you hit playoffs you’re going to be like oh man I am uncomfort it was fine playing this guy in October uh but but in May and June like not so much not so much uh so yeah it’s uh I I don’t know if LeBron should necessarily be criticized for taking this um he obviously has all the money in the world and you know I get it but it is interesting because when your career is winding down like it’s going to be one of the last times that LeBron James can just get a big check you know 52 mil just like that he’s still going to make that a year once he’s retired with all the other stuff that he does but I guess like this is like his basketball income is really technically the only thing that’s like truly like 100% automatically guaranteed in that moment like some of his other ventures and how he makes his money could theoretically go away whereas his agreement obviously being an a professional NBA player like it’s just like okay here you go so it’s just like it it is it is interesting for him to be like “Okay well I’m gonna like forfeit that or I’m going to take significantly less in the name of winning.” But I also think there’s also a psychology to it whereas if LeBron James took less money and they build a better team and he doesn’t win it almost looks worse for LeBron rather than LeBron being like “Guys I’m playing until I’m 50 like I’m still winning games yeah I’m not winning rings right now but like I’m still balling i’m still I’m still playing great what do you want they haven’t built this great team around me i can only do so much and then it and then it allows him to almost have like older LeBron stats and not have it knock him u but the the conversations around LeBron always get kind of messy because it also it’s always like well what lens are we viewing LeBron’s LeBron through right now right like is he already the GOAT what does he have to do to become the GOAT you know how do we feel about him playing at this and it’s like the truth is it’s like you know I’m kind of like I wish Colin didn’t even bring up LeBron uh bring up Jordan because I’m kind of like dude this doesn’t have to turn into a whole GOAT conversation right like why you know it’s just like let’s just talk about what the Lakers can do in 2025 with the pieces that they have and the money that’s owed it’s like let’s just leave it at that like I you know it’s like I don’t it’s like what’s so annoying is because I know people in the comment section are going to be like what LeBron is doing at this age is is crazy and amazing and this and it’s just like yeah I know that is great but it’s just like you know LeBron is playing he’s playing at a high level so I’m going to treat him as a player who’s playing great and plays at a high level i’m not going to grade him on a curve right now you know that’s that’s the whole we’re not I’m not grading him on a curve and so and we only start to do all that other stuff when we’re trying to figure out how great is LeBron truly and it’s like he’s great we know that we all agree he’s great doesn’t matter about MJ doesn’t matter about anyone else like let’s just focus on what we have in front of us but those are just my thoughts i’d absolutely love to hear yours what do you guys all think about LeBron James um exercising his $52.6 million player option i know Winter is trying to make it sound like he’s going to like he can leave that something in his contract makes it kind of like you know that he can he’ll be on the move uh which I think is absurd there’s no way he’s going to be leaving Los Angeles the only reason why he would do that is if he goes to Cleveland to just play one more season and just retire you know have his farewell tour and call it a day u but outside of that like everything’s in LA for LeBron but those are just my thoughts i’d absolutely love to hear yours let me know your comments in the thoughts in your comments below i read every single comment it’s whether you agree with me or disagree with me either way let’s get in some discussions let’s get in some fights but ultimately let’s just have some fun and please do consider subscribing we are building an amazing community here and absolutely love to see you part of it i want to build something that we all genuinely feel connected to something that we’re really excited to be part of i think we’re well on our way to doing it please don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up as it really does help the visibility and the algorithm thank you so much see you next time
THE HERD | Colin Cowherd RIPS Lebron For HURTING Los Angeles Lakers With HUGE Salary | NBA
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1 Comment
Jordan's first 3 peat is greater than all of lebozos career