Don't believe the hype that LeBron James' The Shop is "unfiltered" with "honest" opinions

Deadspin

The HBO barbershop talk show has been described as a "rare, unfiltered glimpse" into the NBA superstar's mind. But James has previously expressed the views he presented on the show, but without the profanity. What The Shop actually aims to do, says Billy Haisley, is bolster LeBron's brand. "The point here isn’t that the things LeBron and Co. say in The Shop are insincere or fake or anything of the sort," he says. "It’s probably safe to say that LeBron does genuinely hold all the beliefs he espoused on Tuesday’s episode, and some of the tidbits revealed there—LeBron’s regret about naming his son after him out of concern that he’s saddled his son with a legacy that’s impossible to live up to; Odell Beckham’s likening of his own fame to a lion’s life in a zoo—were genuinely interesting snapshots of these people’s incredibly fascinating lives. Rather, the point is that the things said in The Shop are calculated, risk-free, decidedly filtered, stated for the predominate purpose of bolstering LeBron’s brand. It’s to position LeBron as a bold truth-teller without him having to actually tell any bold truths. And it should be treated as such."