"Now it will always be personal" - Former ESPN host Michelle Beadle says LeBron James tried to get her fired for mocking the infamous special, 'The Decision'
LeBron James's career has lasted for 18 years, spanning over three teams. He will go down as one of the best basketball players to ever play, but one thing stands out as unfavorable in his career. Televising a live event where he decided on what team he would play for has always been controversial.
LeBron James was criticized a lot for signing with the Miami Heat in free agency. Apparently, Lebron James did not take all the criticism too well, as former ESPN employee Michelle Beadle claims James tried to get her fired.
Now working for The Athletic, Beadle spoke on the topic on her own show titled, What Did I Miss? With Michelle Beadle. In a conversation with Paul Pierce, who has his own run-ins with LeBron James, she said:
“I made fun of ‘The Decision’ like 400,000 other talking heads did at the time, and I think for some reason, that was it. So, it wasn’t personal, to begin with, it. It’s obviously, now it will always be personal.”
Michelle Beadle says LeBron James tried to get her fired from ESPN: https://t.co/MtzGBr5P5u
That made Beadle on James, giving her a negative impression of him.
Her claims have yet to be acknowledged by LeBron James, but James spoke about his decision to make ‘The Decision’ and has regretted it. In an interview with ESPN from 2011, James voiced that he would have probably made his decision differently by saying:
“The fact of having the whole TV special and people getting the opportunity to watch me make a decision on where I'm going to play, I would probably change that.”
LeBron James after ‘The Decision'
LeBron James was already on his way to becoming one of the best basketball players in history, and ‘The Decision’ turned him into the NBA’s newest villain. Becoming the villain is something that every great player needs to go through, and James’s decision sparked that.
11 YEARS AGO TODAY
LeBron James made "The Decision" to take his talents to South Beach!
https://t.co/9A4kO7BSuA
James decided to leave his hometown team and the team that drafted him, the Cleveland Cavaliers. To be fair, the team did not help James at all in his pursuit of an NBA Championship, so James felt he had to go someplace else to win.
A mix of James’s decision to form a super team with friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat, plus the way he announced it, added to his new villain persona.
With its new big three, the Heat won two championships in four years, in which the team was mainly hated by many NBA fans, other than die-hard LeBron James’s and Miami Heat fans. However, after four years in Miami, he decided to go back to Cleveland and win his third NBA Championship.
Going back to Cleveland seemed to rectify the NBA fans' opinion of him, and when he decided to join the Los Angeles Lakers, there was no issue from the fans.
Also Read: How many rings does LeBron James have?