NBA fans have made fun of LeBron James for years for being too involved in personnel decisions with the franchises he is a part of.
Utah Jazz icon John Stockton is now taking it to another level.
Every superstar has some kind of say in the moves that their team makes and with LeBron the influence has been even more obvious, earning him the “LeGM” nickname.
Hall of Famer John Stockton recently appeared on the DNP-CD podcast and was asked if this new player empowerment era is hurting the game. He did not mince a single word when he mentioned LeBron directly and didn’t pull any punches.
“I don’t know what it’s like to sit in that front office and have things [dictated] to you like a plan, and it appears that LeBron is,” said Stockton.
“I don’t know for sure that he is, but it appears so,” Stockton added. “I think it would be maddening as a teammate to know that you can be expendable for one of his guys that he thinks he needs to play with. The iffiness it causes with the team, the iffiness that it causes upstairs. I don’t like it … I’m not a fan of it.”
The Utah Jazz legend is from an entirely different era than LeBron as he entered the NBA in 1984 and retired in 2003, right before James entered the league later that year and well before the modern era of player empowerment.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
The biggest example of LeBron’s influence came in 2019 when the Lakers unloaded much of their young depth in exchange for Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans. The Lakers sent Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and three first-round picks to the Pelicans.
It would work out as the Lakers won the title in 2020 in the Orlando bubble. Another moment was the Lakers trading for Russell Westbrook and sending three future second-round picks to the Washington Wizards. As we saw, that pairing did not work and Westbrook is now on the Clippers.
No doubt he has had his share of influence in the past, and he wants to play with certain guys. It is still up to the franchises to make those deals happen in the end.
