The legacy of LeBron James will always be debatable based on how he managed to achieve his championships along the way. Some look back at his movement of player-created superteams as an inevitability due to the Cleveland Cavaliers' inability to get him help. On the other hand, some people look back on it as a moment that ruined the league. The philosophy established by Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan is that you stick with your team and find a way to breakthrough. LeBron's use of player movement has inspired others to do the same. One of the most infamous uses of this method was when Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors after they eliminated his team from contention.
In a recent interview with Bootleg Kev, former teammate to LeBron James, Iman Shumpert defended Kevin Durant joining the Warriors and said LeBron knows he ruined basketball:
“Nah, it wasn’t K.D. (Kevin Durant),” Shumpert said. “It was Bron first going to Miami. Bron knows he ruined basketball. … Me personally, I love the NBA for the loyalty that I thought was there. He basically knocked the fourth wall down… He wasn’t supposed to do that.”
In the video below, Chris Broussard & Rob Parker discuss if Shumpert was right about LeBron:
Rob Parker: "Shumpert is correct, and LeBron has ruined the NBA. And he has a right as a free agent to do whatever he wants but what I was saying is, I don't believe that some of the movement that we saw would've happened had LeBron stayed put. I'm not sure Kevin Durant would've left OKC."
Check out Iman Shumpert's interview with Bootleg Kev