Fred Toucher on LeBron James farewell tour doubts: “He’s not smart”
Before making history by playing in his 20th All-Star game, LeBron James told reporters he wants to retire as a Laker, but is not sure how many more seasons he’ll play. He’s thinking about having a farewell tour when he decides to call it quits.
“I’m 50-50, I’m going to be honest because there’s times when I feel like I guess I owe it to my fans that have been along this journey with me for two decades plus, to be able to give them that moment where it’s every city and whatever the case may be and they give you your flowers or whatever the case may be. That seems cool. But the other side of I’ve never been that great with accepting, like, praise. It’s a weird feeling for me. I never really talked about it much, but it’s just a weird feeling for me. So to go in each city, if that’s the case – I don’t know.”
“I’ve seen Michael’s, I’ve seen Kobe’s. I’ve seen a lot of guys. I just don’t know how I’d feel. I don’t know if I’d feel great about it. Maybe the only child in me – maybe.”
WATCH HERE:
COMING SOON
During this morning’s Toucher & Hardy, Fred vented his frustration with LeBron James’ inability to handle criticism and his history of being surrounded by praise. He questions LeBron’s intelligence and compares him unfavorably to Michael Jordan, suggesting that LeBron’s success is more about his physical talent than his personality.
“He’s not smart, man. LeBron James is not smart. I don’t dislike him, and I don’t blame his abject narcissism. I mean, why wouldn’t he be narcissistic? Who’s ever told him no? No one. He hasn’t heard any since he was 12. And he didn’t have to work as hard as others, given his physical gifts. There are guys like Ben Simmons who are equally, if not more, physically gifted but haven’t achieved what he has in the NBA. And if you look at Wembanyama, people are saying he’s the next LeBron, but Wembanyama’s team isn’t that good. LeBron made the Cavaliers more marketable. No one else is in the same conversation as them. So I’m not just blindly hating LeBron James; it’s too easy to do. But he’s not smart. I mean, come on. To say things like, “I just don’t know if I’m going to do the tour. If I can accept the praise.” You can’t accept praise? More than anybody, your whole career has been about accepting praise. More than Jordan. It’s been all about accepting praise. The reason Nike is considered the Air Jordan, the reason they’ve had so much success and it’s considered the best ad campaign of all time is that they said, “Jordan’s got a great smile and he’s tremendous to look at, but he has zero personality.” So, what they did was they took this great young director, Spike Lee, and gave him the reins to talk for him. That’s the whole campaign. And to this day, people are still buying Jordans for $700.”
LISTEN HERE:
Sports Hub personalities paired with 1980s sitcom characters
