LeBron James is the face of the NBA right now but is also the same face that can be blamed for almost half of the ownership of the NBA getting cut off, due to people losing interest because of him. At least, this is what entrepreneur and podcast host Patrick Bet-David thinks, especially with LeBron recently having a controversial claim that Christmas is NBA’s day, only to be debunked by the viewership numbers.
In one of the recent episodes of the PBD Podcast, Patrick Bet-David touched on the topic of placing LeBron James ahead of the late Lakers star Kobe Bryant. He went on to brand LeBron the “face of the NBA,” but then slammed him for one bad thing happening to the league now.
“On my list, he’s also second,” Bet-David said, referring to Michael Jordan over LeBron. “Now, you know a lot of people debate and they get upset when we say that? They said you put him ahead of Kobe. The biggest dispute there is the field goal percentage because LeBron’s field goal percentage and three-point—he improved his game and evolved multiple times.”
Despite that, James is still to blame for one huge thing in the NBA right now.
“But you know the amount of eyeballs the NBA lost [in] the last 12 years, 48% goes to the face of the league, and the face of the league is LeBron James.”
Co-host Vincent Oshana expanded on the point, explaining why James contributed to the ratings drop.
“The face of the NBA is one of the main factors that the numbers are down because people don’t want to tune in to watch somebody that’s separating the country, period,” he said. “That’s it. I stopped. I used to watch basketball. [Now], zero. I haven’t watched one second of one game, period, and he’s a big part of it.”
LeBron James Hints Wanting to End His Career with The Lakers
The question of retirement is no longer new to LeBron James. After all, he is the oldest active NBA player right now and he has played 22 seasons, including the current 2024-2025 season. He also just turned 40, which once again sparked the question of “when will LeBron retire?”
While he still did not give a timeline, he hinted at wanting to end his career with the Lakers.
“I think that’s the plan,” LeBron James said. “I would love for it to end here and that would be the plan. I mean I came here to play (the) last stage of my career and to finish it off here. But I’m also not silly or too jaded to know the business of the game as well, know the business of basketball.”
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