Brooklyn Nets star Blake Griffin defends LeBron James after he received unnecessary criticism for joining Miami Heat and forming the big three

There is absolutely no doubt about LeBron James legacy in the NBA. He is undoubtedly one of the most talented players ever to grace the league. But all of that has not come without controversies. He is often criticised for very petty things on social media. There are trolls and memes relating to LeBron and that is a testament to his huge popularity.

While he has featured for many teams over the years, his departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time raise a lot of eyebrows. He joined the Miami Heat to join the famous ‘Big three’ with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and was heavily criticised by some of the NBA experts and purists. The Heat big three were iconic as they paved the way for the Warriors in 2016 to 2018 or the current Los Angeles Lakers or Brooklyn Nets. Recently the big three teams have been very popular as teams look to stack up talented players to win the NBA Championship.

While James received a lot of criticism for joining Heat and forming the big three, some people applauded him for showing tremendous courage. However Brooklyn Nets star Blake Griffin feels that there was no need to criticise King James. On his first appearance at the JJ Redick podcast the Nets’ center defended LeBron James for his move to Miami Heat. He highlighted how the Boston Celtics were the first team to form the big three back in 2008 way before the Heat.

“I think it’s really funny like you know everybody like really s**t on LeBron like, LeBron was kind of the first guy everybody s**t on for like joining… The Celtics did it before. They brought KG (Kevin Garnett) and Ray Allen to team up with Paul Pierce.”

It is a fair point raised by Griffin as Celtics gathered an iconic team after they got Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to partner with Paul Pierce. So it was the Celts who set the standards and as they became successful with that team other teams also bought into the idea of creating superteams and challenging for the NBA title.