LeBron James’ Agent Accuses Bill Simmons of Racist Criticism of NBA Legend: ‘He Wouldn’t Have Said That About Larry Bird’

It’s been 11 years since LeBron James made his infamous “Decision” live on ESPN, announcing plans to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat, a move that was widely ridiculed.

It’s also been 11 years since Bill Simmons, then a columnist for ESPN, was one of LeBron’s loudest critics, writing an op-ed blasting the NBA superstar. And because of those criticisms which are more than a decade old, don’t expect to see LeBron or his agent Rich Paul join Simmons on his Ringer podcast anytime soon, or ever.

“I blame the people around him. I blame the lack of a father figure in his life,” Simmons wrote for ESPN more than a decade ago. “I blame us for feeding his narcissism to the point that he referred to himself in the third person five times in forty-five minutes. I blame local and national writers (including myself) for apparently not doing a good enough job explaining to athletes like LeBron what sports mean to us, and how it IS a marriage, for better and worse, and that we’re much more attached to these players and teams than they realize.”

According to Paul, the criticism was more of a reflection on Simmons than LeBron.

“That’s why I don’t speak to Bill Simmons,” Paul told Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker. “A lot of that has to do with race, too. He wouldn’t have said that about Larry Bird. He wouldn’t have said that about J. J. Redick. You get what I am saying? ‘The Decision’ ten years ago is the norm today. It’s what everyone wants to do. Kids won’t even decide where they go to college without it being a big production, and Bill Simmons says some shit like that.”

“The Decision,” although generally criticized, helped launch a new era of basketball, putting more power in the hands of the sport’s most valuable asset – the players. It’s commonplace for players to spend years mapping out who they want to play with and where they want to do it. And launching the “player empowerment” era has also allowed the league to be more outspoken on social issues, working to improve their communities off the court.

Ironically, 10 years after slamming LeBron for “The Decision,” it was announced that Simmons was influential in devising the controversial idea. Last June, ESPN reported a fan proposed the concept to Simmons in a 2009 email. Simmons then discussed it with members of LeBron’s staff at the 2010 All-Star game. Eleven years later, it’s the root of resentment between LeBron’s camp and Simmons.