Is LeBron James taking cues from Stephen A. Smith?

LeBron James surpassed 40,000 points in his NBA career — but instead of simply being proud of such a great feat, he chose to play the victim.

“To be quite honest with you,” LeBron said in a press conference, “everybody wanted to see me fail when I got to the league.”

LeBron then recalled a commercial he saw when he was 18 in which he was mentioned as one of the greats.

“I was like, 'What the hell?' That expectation on an 18-year-old kid like that, that was just insane to just think about it. I was watching it today, I was like I wish that on no kid and no sport, to have this type of pressure put on them, and everybody wanted to see you fail,” he continued.

“This is like a Kardashian complaining about too much exposure or the ills of social media,” Steve Kim tells Jason Whitlock.

“LeBron just does not have a grasp of reality, and it borders on being very, very dishonest,” Kim continues.

Whitlock agrees.

“He doesn’t have a grasp on reality, I’m not sure any of us would given the amount of worship that has surrounded LeBron since he was 18.”

However, his criticism isn’t aimed solely at LeBron.

“It’s a criticism of how we respond to idols — how we respond to talent, how we respond to money and fame— that people have worshiped LeBron and have told LeBron primarily what he wants to hear. And anyone that offers modicum of criticism of LeBron is some sort of racist, or sellout, or hater,” Whitlock explains.

“He certainly could be divorced from reality, not that smart, and delusional. He’s probably all those things," Whitlock laughs.

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