UPDATE: When asked about James, ESPN reports that Browns coach Eric Mangini said, “I think he should come on down.” Word.
NBA superstar LeBron James was asked about the 1-7 Cleveland Browns last night, and technically speaking, they’re his hometown team. But James wasn’t necessarily upset upset about Eric Mangini or the direction of the team. He just wishes that he could help.
“If I put all my time and commitment into it, if I dedicated myself to the game of football, I could be really good,” the Cavaliers superstar said before facing the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. “No matter what team I was on.” –NBC Sports.
Whatever. There’s nothing worse than That Guy who talks about how great he’d be “if I really put my mind to it,” even if that guy really was one of the best basketball players in the world. If James really wanted to help, he could buy a majority share of the team and then fire Eric Mangini. And after seeing the way that Mangini runs out some of his own players, he might be content to just take five steps in the lane and complaining about not getting calls. Ah, basketball…Also.
Less than a week after punching out on of LeBron James’ “kids,” Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards was literally kicked out of Cleveland. And I thought all those references to LeBron “owning the town” were just figurative. Braylon was sent to the Jets for wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason Trusnik, and two draft picks, reportedly a 3rd- and a 5th-round pick.
The trade comes just two days after a Cleveland man accused Edwards of assault outside a nightclub in the city. The man is a friend of Cavs star LeBron James, who said Edwards’ alleged assault was motivated by “jealousy.”
This is the second major trade between the Browns and Jets since Mangini joined Cleveland after being dismissed by the Jets in January. The Jets acquired the fifth overall pick from the Browns in April, and then selected Sanchez with the choice. via.
Yeah, what the hell is up with the big trades? Is Mangini raiding the Browns? We’ll know in three months, depending on whether or not the entire Jets locker room ends up with a staph infection. also.
The “Friends of Lebron” tag makes its debut on With Leather today as we discuss this bizarre story of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards allegedly punching out Edward Givens, who works as an events promoter-slash-Friend of LeBron. I have no idea why I spelled out the slash there.
A police report gives these details: Givens was talking to the suspect outside the club when the suspect started an argument. The suspect then punched Givens with a closed first on the left side of his face. Givens told officers he would seek treatment at Lutheran Hospital.
The suspect’s name on the police report is redacted. But multiple sources and the victim say the suspect is Edwards. via.
Givens wasn’t surprised that the NFL’s droppingest receiver came after him outside of View Ultralounge & Nightclub early Monday morning.
“Everyone knows Braylon has a problem with LeBron. So I had to speak up for myself. The conversation started to escalate. As some of his teammates started to pull him back, he punched me. I have a black eye and a cut. I’m not a violent guy.
“As long as I’ve known Braylon, I’ve allowed him and his friends to come into our events free of charge. Whatever jealousy he has with LeBron, he felt he needed to take it out on me.”
Braylon would probably do well for himself to get to bed a little earlier and stop dropping so many passes. But this…this is just weird. Dude PLAYS IN THE NFL. And not well, either. Why’s he punching out club promoters? Why not punch out somebody that deserves it? Like Larry Dolan. Or Eric Mangini. Or anyone living in Cleveland that’s not friends with LeBron.
If Cleveland’s entire economy is in fact based on LeBron James, then Ohio’s northeast region shouldn’t expect any major setbacks in 2010, according to his mother, Gloria. Unless, of course, you consider actually living in Cleveland to be a setback. Which you should.
The hoops star’s mother, Gloria, told Page Six it’s not happening. “He’s a hometown boy,” she said. LeBron grew up in Akron, Ohio, but his home now is Cleveland.
The Jameses were at the Monkey Bar for the book party Graydon Carter threw for “Shooting Stars” (Penguin Press), the story of LeBron’s team at St. Vincent-St. Mary HS and their coach, Dru Joyce II.via, via.
Monkey Bar? The Knicks are terrible, anyway. It’ll take more than LeBron to shape up that sorry organization. Sure, the Knicks don’t have the legacy of suckitude that Cleveland does, but it’s New York, where everything there is more awesome because people there say it is. They’re like Germany in the 1940s, but without the cool hats.
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.
Here’s another look at the That Was It? dunk that disappointed everyone yesterday, but at least this one doesn’t have a watermark on it. I’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of something being overblown simply because of a party’s efforts to restrict information from everyone. I learned that when I was nine. I don’t know why Nike and ESPN haven’t figured that out yet.
ESPN offered the creator of this video $500, according to Dan Levy in a post for Sporting Blog. The monolith’s offer came well short of the $5,000 paid by eBaumnation for this clip, which is much better quality than that fogged up video on TMZ.
Levy asks if the future of journalism will come down to news agencies paying citizens for various bits of camera footage, and I’ll answer him under the assumption that journalism isn’t already dead: why wouldn’t they? News teams have no issue keeping camera operators on staff and paying them; this is just classic crowdsourcing. It keeps everyone honest and, as was proven here, keeps them in the know as well. The practice of journalism is enriched when we are all witnesses, and the pulling of some of that power out of the hands of the elite media couldn’t come at a better time.
