07.24.09 LEBRON WAS THE MVP, BUT THEN HE GOT HIGH

Shocking, shocking news coming out of the NBA this morning: LeBron James smoked pot in high school. I can’t believe someone aspiring to play basketball would partake in such business. The revelation was one of the more candid bits of info released to promote his new book, “Shooting Stars,” which is co-authored by a blogosphere’s favorite, one Harry Gerard “Buzz” Bissinger III.

In the book, scheduled for release in September, the NBA’s reigning MVP recounts the media circus that enveloped his final two years at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School following his SI cover appearance. James said he and close friends Dru Joyce, Sian Cotton, Romeo Travis and Willie McGee—nicknamed the Fab Five—became “rock stars” and took advantage of their celebrity.

“I was arrogant, dubbing myself “The Chosen One,” James said. “In hindsight, I should have kept quiet, but I also was what I was, a teenager where every reporter in the world seemed to be rushing toward me at once.”

James also revealed he and his teammates smoked marijuana one night after getting access to a hotel room in Akron.

The book deals almost exclusively with James’ last two years at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron. LeBron, at 16, was probably the greatest amateur basketball player on earth at that time, so I don’t have a problem with him being a prick to the occasional passerby. Everyone wants to believe that we’re all equal as human beings and that we should love each other, but that’s a ridiculously simplified mindset. Unless you’re high, and then, yeah man, we’re all in this together. Suddenly this post is making me hungry.