10 reasons LeBron James is hated: a definitive guide

2) Losing record in NBA Finals

Dirk Nowitzki got the best of LeBron James in the 2011 NBA Finals

If a scientific experiment is being conducted for the purpose of testing a hypothesis, you can be sure that 7 will be too little of a sample size to conclusively draw any conclusion. And yet champions are bestowed based on a few encounters.

That doesn't make the championship illegitimate, but it does beget the question, should we ought to condemn, deride, bemoan, and scoff at someone who has competed for a championship for the greater part of his career for not winning them all?

Getting to the NBA Finals is a slippery slope. You have to battle through the regular season while praying for the team to remain healthy, motivated and together. Then comes the grind of the playoffs, which make reaching the summit of the NBA Finals a marathon. It is no mean feat to make it to the Finals year after year, even if it’s in the Eastern Conference.

Tim Duncan is 5-1 in NBA Finals. Michael Jordan is 6-0. Kobe Bryant is 5-2. And LeBron James is 3-4. LeBron is in excellent company, though. There is another name which lost a great number of Finals before winning his first championship, Jerry West. The Logo finished his career with a 1-8 record in the Finals.