NBA All-Star makes stunning confession on starting ‘Crybaby’ LeBron James trend

Gilbert Arenas and Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James battled in the Eastern Conference for nine seasons.

NBA All-Star makes stunning confession on starting ‘Crybaby’ LeBron James trend

Gilbert Arenas helped 'crybaby' narrative start while battling LeBron James

LeBron James has been the de facto ‘face of the NBA’ for the past two decades. However, there is a section of fans that believe the Los Angeles Lakers superstar complains a lot, even affecting his team, the league and its officials.

From the early days, fans saw a player that routinely displayed his basketball skills to become the best player in the league. But as time passed, he started to whine and complain a lot more. One of his primary complaints was when the Cleveland Cavaliers could not assemble a good enough team around him.

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Then came the famous ‘The Decision’ and the narrative surrounding the then young superstar turned. But before all this, the complaining narrative started after a certain T-Shirt from Papa John’s bearing the name ‘Crybaby James’ appeared during the playoffs. Gilbert Arenas now reveals how it came about.

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I’m the one who did that. It was a great idea because he was shocked. It was the first negative thing that ever was said about him.

Gilbert Arenas said

The three-time All-Star clarified that he was the OG at starting the trend of LeBron James being a crybaby. That narrative has since caught on. The T-Shirts did not return courtside, but that name stuck. Every time he complained publicly about his team, the officiating or anything else, fans would slam him for being a crybaby.

Gilbert Arenas has since turned his stance on LeBron James

The crybaby monicker has continued to tag along with LeBron James even in season 22. So much so that fans saw his complaints about the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster construct as another complaint. That was despite the Lakers seemingly having won the 2023-24 offseason.

This season, he has again come into the limelight after he called out media members for continuous criticisms about NBA players. When one of those media members, Stephen A. Smith went all out attack on James, Gilbert Arenas was the one that called out the ESPN analyst’s hypocrisy.

Arenas has also clashed with Rashad McCants on his podcast Gil’s Arena several times. They are all partners on the show, but the 43-year-old does not stop from defending James, even if it is with his friends.

He has trained Bronny James and his younger brother Bryce. This indicates that probably Gilbert Arenas is more of a friend now. Considering the ‘crybaby’ t-shirts and their Eastern Conference battles, the two have come a long way.