LeBron James in the recent (Sep 2010) issue of GQ opened up somewhat about a return to play for Cleveland, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, and the happiness in his face since bolting the Cavs for the Miami Heat.

The article by J.R. Moehringer didn’t reveal anything earth shattering but here is what King James had to say:

LeBron James on how those close to him view his decision: “They’re happy to see me happy. That’s what they can see in my face. They say: ‘It’s been a while since we’ve seen you look like that.’ ”

…on Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert: “I don’t think he ever cared about LeBron. My mother always told me: ‘You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You’ll get a good sense of their character.’ Me and my family have seen the character of that man.”

…on imagining himself playing for the Cavaliers again one day: “If there was an opportunity for me to return and those fans welcome me back, that’d be a great story.… Maybe the ones burning my jersey were never LeBron fans anyway.”

…on how growing up helped him learn about facing adversity and staying humble: “That’s what keeps me humble, because I know my background, know what my mother went through. I never get too high on my stardom or what I can do. My mom always says, and my friends say, ‘You’re just a very low-maintenance guy.’”

Things that make you go hmmmmmm!

Related: The Controversial LeBron James/Gisele (King Kong) Cover

[Photo Credit: Ben Watts/GQ]

Burger King

The burger franchise is using their King to welcome King James to South Beach on the billboard that simply says, “King to King, Welcome to My Court.”

LeBron left the Cleveland Cavaliers in early July to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat.

ESPN writer Arash Markazi wrote a wonderful story about his weekend in Las Vegas with LeBron James and his entourage. James was paid over $100,000 to host a party weekend at Tao.  The story was full of tales of James’ ego, naked ladies, and the out-of-control party James threw that night.  The entire weekend was negotiated and setup by James’ BFF Maverick Carter.

The story was spiked by ESPN shortly after it was published on ESPN.com

Several people were smart enough to grab screen shots and the text of the article before ESPN could delete it.

Here is the ESPN story in it’s entirety:

A Kid In King James’ Court

LeBron James leans against a waist-high stone wall with a 16-foot-tall Buddha hovering over him.

He’s at Tao, a bustling restaurant and nightclub inside the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, and his arms are crossed as he listens to Lynn Meritt, senior director of Nike Basketball, and Charles Denson, president of Nike Brand.James is quiet, occasionally applying Chap Stick on his lips and nodding when he hears something he likes.

Five security guards are stationed around him, one at each corner of the table he’s about to sit at and another roving around with him, watching his every move. Anyone who takes two steps toward James is stopped and must have James’ approval to come closer.

The waiter bringing him his cup of green tea with a spoonful of honey and a dash of lemon juice makes the cut, as does the scantily clad brunette with a tattoo of a heart on her right shoulder.

She wants to take a picture with him. “I can’t right now,” says James. “Maybe later, upstairs, I’ll remember you’re the one with the tattoo.”

James will host a party later in the upstairs nightclub at Tao, but he is currently hosting a dinner for his friends and family in the downstairs restaurant. Wearing a gray striped shirt and gold crucifix around his neck, he bobs his head to music played by an amped-up saxophonist who weaves his way around the table like a one-man mariachi band.

I have somehow found myself at this exclusive table, seated beside Eddie Jackson, who is introduced to me as James’ father (though he actually began dating James’ mother, Gloria, after LeBron was born and the two are no longer together). Jackson, wearing a muscle shirt accentuating his large biceps, looks like a member of James’ four-man entourage, like one of his childhood friends.

James’ circle includes Randy Mims, seated to his right at the center of the table, Maverick Carter, seated at the head of the table, and Richard Paul, seated in front of James. The quartet makes up the initials behind LRMR Marketing, the management firm James founded almost four years ago with his buddies. Their offices in downtown Cleveland gained notoriety this month as the location teams flocked to for their meetings with James.

LeBron James partied at Tao last weekend, complete with a kings’ cake and an entourage to make heads of state jealous.

Seated to the right of James is Chris Paul, whose brother, C.J., is seated across from him. The New Orleans Hornets point guard has seen how James has positioned himself to win a championship by signing with the Miami Heat and joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and has reportedly considered a similar move himself.

The truth is, in James’ dream world, the duo he would love to play with for the next decade would be Wade and Paul, his two closest friends in the NBA. Paul has been like a brother to James since the two were in Las Vegas four years ago for USA Basketball training camp, when as a rookie he carried James’ and Wade’s bags to and from the team bus.

James and Paul are fairly quiet at the center of the table as they take in the scene around them. As family style plates of miso-glazed Chilean sea bass and crispy lobster and shrimp dumplings are brought to the table, James effortlessly picks up the food with his chopsticks and occasionally raises his cup of green tea to passersby as they raise their martinis and mojitos in his direction before being helped along by security guards.

When trays of dessert plates are brought over, James gets up, preferring to start his party upstairs instead of indulging in the giant fortune cookies and chocolate cake. A security guard comes over and puts plastic wristbands on our wrists and escorts us through the back of the restaurant, up a flight of stairs in the bowels of the hotel and through a back entrance into the club. About a dozen security guards, moving their flash lights, direct us to a roped off section on the dance floor of Tao next to a couple of apparently nude women in a bathtub full of water and rose petals.

James, now wearing sunglasses in the dark club, immediately stands up on the couch and folds his arms high on his chest and nods his head. He smiles as he looks at the dozens of people crowded on the dance floor. Noticing him, they stop dancing and snap pictures as the DJ screams out, “LeBron James in the building!” and plays ****’s “I’m in Miami.”

Carter, LeBron’s childhood friend and manager, begins dancing around James like Puff Daddy in a Notorious B.I.G video. A giant red crown-shaped cake is brought over to James while go-go dancers dressed in skimpy red and black outfits raise four lettered placards that spell out, “KING.” Carter grabs a bottle of Grey Goose and pours a quarter of it on the floor and raises it up before passing it off.

James’ infamous one-hour special, “The Decision,” was reportedly the brainchild of Carter, a 28-year-old who has never managed anyone outside of his friend James. This three-day party marathon in Vegas (which James is being paid six figures to host) is also Carter’s idea.

Bottle after bottle of “Ace of Spades” champagne is delivered to the table by a waiter flying down from above the dance floor like some overgrown Peter Pan on a wire. One time he’s dressed like a King, another time as Indiana Jones and another in a replica of James’ No. 6 Miami Heat jersey.

James, who can hardly see the flying figure through his tinted glasses, almost gets kicked in the head on the waiter’s last trip down. He looks at the girls around him and says, “I wish they’d have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of the guy.”

Toward the end of the night, Boston Celtics forward Glen Davis walks past James’ party and looks at the scene up and down several times like a painting in a museum, soaking in the images of the go-go dancers, the “King” sign and the costumed man delivering bottles of champagne.

Davis shakes his head and walks on.

James dances on the couch and sings along with the music blaring from speakers all around him.

The more you hang around James, the more you realize he’s still a child wrapped in a 6-foot-8, 250-pound frame. The night after the party at Tao, he and his crew walk through the casino at the Wynn and Encore and he pretends to dribble a basketball as he walks past ringing slot machines and tourists who do double-takes. In a Nike T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, James’ pantomime seems unconscious. He stops every few feet to shoot a jump shot, his right hand extended above his head on the follow through. He weaves through a pack of a dozen friends and pretends to connect on a layup as he walks past a gift shop. He passes overhead casino signs and jumps up and slaps them, pretending to dunk. Columns covered with advertisements for lounge acts become stationary defenders, chumps to fake out before connecting on imaginary mid-range jump shots.

James probably goes through a practice’s worth of shots as we walk from the XS nightclub at Encore (James left his poolside table when he saw the club was practically empty), through Wynn and over the bridge to the Palazzo.

Soon after arriving at Lavo, a restaurant and nightclub at the Palazzo, a scene straight out of “West Side Story” breaks out when James and Lamar Odom, seated at a nearby table, engage in an impromptu dance-off to California Swag District’s “Teach Me How To Dougie.”

Odom, smoking a cigar, can’t quite keep up. James celebrates by crossing himself and taking a shot of Patron. Moments later, a handful of girls dressed as cheerleaders walk toward his table with someone dressed in James’ Heat uniform. Someone throws talcum powder in the air as James does before every game, while his new unofficial song, “I’m in Miami,” plays.

Odom casts a glance James’ way before looking in the opposite direction and raising his glass at a couple on the dance floor who point to their ring fingers and smile.

Back at his table, James and his crew sing every word to Rick Ross’ “Free Mason.” LeBron raps every line to former teammate Damon Jones (who played with him in Cleveland). Jones, puffing on a cigar, nods.

James rips out the lines:

“If I ever die, never let it be said I didn’t win/ 
Never, never say/ 
Never say legend didn’t go in/ 
I just wanna die on top of the world.”

While he looks at club-goers flashing the LA and Westside signs at him, James smiles and points to Jackson’s T-shirt, which reads, “Another Enemy,” and raises his glass of champagne.

Finally, Carter tells James it’s time to leave the club and they do, LeBron pretending to cross-over tables and shoot over slot machines all the way back to his room.

After reading Markazi’s piece it’s probably no surprise ESPN took it off their site being as passionately in bed as they are with LeBron and the NBA.

Is there really any doubt that LeBron had Maverick or Maverick, on his own, called ESPN to retract the story from the site?  The story doesn’t shine a favorable light on ‘The Prince,’ but there is nothing overly scandalous in it.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: ESPN responds (albeit weakly): “The story should have never been published. The draft was inadvertently put on the server before going through the usual editorial process. We are in the midst of looking into the matter.”   Uh, uh!!

LeBron James continues to have a tough week as many have downgraded him to second banana upon his migration down to South Beach to join Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat.

The debate between many die-hard NBA fans is who is the better player between LeBron and Kobe Bryant.

Well the greatest guard to ever play chimed in with his opinion at a basketball camp this week.

Michael Jordan definitely said that Kobe is in fact the better player (watch video above).

Read the Full Text of Gilbert’s Below:

Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;

As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.

Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.

There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.

You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”

You can take it to the bank.

If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our “motivation” to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.

Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.

Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works.

This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown “chosen one” sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And “who” we would want them to grow-up to become.

But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called “curse” on Cleveland, Ohio.

The self-declared former “King” will be taking the “curse” with him down south. And until he does “right” by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.

Just watch.

Sleep well, Cleveland.

Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day….

I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:

DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue….

Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner
Cleveland Cavaliers

[source: nba.com]

Bumpshack is reporting that the a large photo of Delonte West was on the front of the Cleveland Cavs website tonight after LeBron James divorced the team to join the Miami Heat.

West reportedly slept with James mom, Gloria James, during the playoffs and in destroyed all the chemistry on the team as they were upset by the Boston Celtics.

View Delonte Photo of Cavs Website Dissing LeBron

In a move that has left everyone but the Miami Heat with a bad taste in their mouth, LeBron James announced during a 1-hour live show on ESPN called ‘The Decision’ that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join forces with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami.

I thought there was no way he would leave his hometown Cavs in a complete state of disarray, but LeBron has never handled pressure well.  He likely will win a NBA Championship with the Heat but he won’t win it as THE man.

Cavs Homepage Takes Swipe at LeBron with Photo of Delonte West

NBA mega-star LeBron James might not have a new contract just yet, but the basketball prince has set himself up as ‘King James’ or @KingJames on Twitter.

LeBron has yet to tweet but already has over 50,000 followers in just 24 hours.  He has also not uploaded a profile or icon photo.

Most NBA followers expect James to resign with Cleveland Cavaliers within the next 10 days.

Follow LeBron @KingJames on Twitter.

Read More Details Here

If true that would do it.  Odds of LeBron and Delonte being on the same team next year?  Most already believed Delonte was missing a few screws upstairs.

‘More Than A Game’ is the feature film about NBA star LeBron James and his high school teammates as they bond together to win the Ohio state basketball championship.

Here is how the producers are describing More Than A Game:

Five talented young basketball players from Akron, Ohio star in this remarkable true-life coming of age story about uncommon friendship in the face all too common adversities. Coached by a charismatic but inexperienced player’s father, and led by future NBA superstar LeBron James, the “Fab Five’s” improbable seven-year journey leads them from a decrepit inner-city gym to the doorstep of a national high school championship. Along the way, the close-knit team is repeatedly tested—both on and off the court—as James’ exploding worldwide celebrity threatens to destroy everything they’ve set out to achieve together. MORE THAN A GAME combines a series of unforgettable one-on-one interviews with rare news footage, never-before-seen home videos and personal family photographs to bring this heart-warming and wholly American story to life.

Lionsgate and Harvey Mason Media in association with Interscope Records present a Harvey Mason Media Production in association with Galley Boy and Spring Hill Productions a film by Kristopher Belman. MORE THAN A GAME is written by Kristopher Belman & Brad Hogan and directed by Kristopher Belman. The film features LeBron James, Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee, Romeo Travis and Coach Dru Joyce II.

The movie opens in theaters October 2nd.

More Than a Game Website