Hall of Famer doesn’t hold back while criticizing Lakers’ LeBron James

LeBron James has undoubtedly created a resume that makes him one of the greatest NBA players of all time. After breaking the all-time scoring record with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023, it is hard to refute LeBron as anything less than a top-three player of all time.

Yet, for some reason, LeBron has garnered a lot of criticism throughout the years. LeBron is the face of the new “player empowerment” era in which superstars are switching teams like it is going out of style. That has earned LeBron a lot of flak even though he himself has never demanded a trade.

LeBron also gets criticized for his perceived influence on the roster moves that his team makes. 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.

That does not sit well with legends of the game’s past. 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. Stockton did not hesitate to mention 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 dictating to you like a plan, and it appears LeBron is. I don’t know for sure that he is, but it’d 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.”"

John Stockton’s criticism of Lakers’ LeBron James is ironic.

To be fair to Stockon, he played his entire career with the Utah Jazz and will go down as one of the best point guards of all time. He also played with the second leading scorer all time, Karl Malone, and made multiple NBA Finals appearances.

It is just ironic that Stockton is talking about the uneasiness that LeBron’s perceived influence would have on a team considering LeBron has won four championships while Stockton won zero in his time. It certainly has not slowed LeBron down in reaching the mountaintop multiple times.

Is there an interesting dynamic caused by LeBron that fans cannot understand? Sure. But all of the guys in the NBA know it’s a business and if anything, this drives players to be at their best. If it does not cut it with LeBron then they are not going to be part of something special. Simple as that.

This might actually have a positive impact on how well players play. Just look at the countless number of players who joined up with LeBron James and had career years and turned that into getting much bigger paydays. They likely aren’t feeling uneasy about that.