I don’t normally watch late night talk shows. To be honest, these days, I’m usually in bed before 11:35 pm anyway. So it’s not every night that I watch David Letterman. However, I generally look at the late night shows in the guide and see if there’s going to be an interesting guest on, and if there is, I set my DVR to record it.
When I saw that Eminem and Jay-Z were set to perform, I decided it might be worthwhile to record. What I didn’t know was that Jay-Z was going to actually be a guest on the show as well. Once I saw that, I was really happy I had it recorded.
The interview started out boring enough. Frankly, Jay-Z may be a great entertainer, but the guy gives lousy interviews. He had quite literally nothing interesting to say whatsoever, and Dave could barely get more than 2 sentences out of him. It was a train wreck, as Dave tried to ask Jay-Z about his relationship with Eminem and why they were choosing to do their 2 shows in Detroit and New York City. Once the topic switched to basketball, though, things got a little more interesting as you can see in the video below:
It was obvious that Jay-Z was aware of tampering rules and was hesitant to break them…..and then he dove in head first and broke them anyway. We’ll see if David Stern continues his trend of levying out the fines for tampering or if he’ll give Jay-Z a free pass like he has time and time again over the years.
Letterman saved his best stuff for when the inevitable LeBron James discussion came up. Dave told Jay-Z “You’re a guy, and I’m a guy. If LeBron James wants to be a guy, he will stay where he is and not cut the heart out of that city, by leaving Cleveland.” It was a pretty bold statement to say right in front of the part owner of the New Jersey Nets who already admitted he is pursuing LeBron. The best part was that a visibly flustered Jay-Z could only muster “But this is New York City, though.” So, yeah, there’s that.
Letterman later made another appeal for Cleveland while simultaneously insulting Jay-Z’s franchise. “He really ought to stay where he is and help the city. He would be a bigger hero that way, and what are his chances of winning with the Knicks? Zero? What are your chances of winning with the Nets? Not that strong.” I’m not sure Jay-Z appreciated that comment, but it was funny to watch him squirm none the less.
Look, obviously these are just a couple entertainers talking back and forth for the sake of the audience, and this wasn’t actually a discussion that has any real merit as far as LeBron’s future. If we want to turn this into a more serious discussion, we can talk about all the reports that LeBron and Bosh to the Bulls is a “done deal”. Or maybe we can talk about Stephen A Smith’s assertion that LeBron and Bosh are going to join Wade in Miami. Or we could listen to the guy who knows LeBron better than any of these other guys, and that person is Brian Windhorst. Brian wrote over the weekend that the only person who will make this decision is LeBron himself. All these other reports and sources are pure speculation based on the opinions of those closest to LeBron. But until LeBron comes out and makes his decision public, nothing is over.
It’s important to remember not to get too down or too encouraged by any piece of news surrounding LeBron right now. Things are going to pick up this week and we’re probably going to begin to hear more and more rumors surface. The best advice I can give, though, is to follow what Windhorst says. Other reporters may have certain “ins” with members of LeBron’s entourage, but nobody in the business has a better finger on the pulse of the man making the decision than Windhorst.
And if all else fails, just take comfort in knowing that at least if all else fails, we know David Letterman has our back.
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And just for good measure, here’s the video of Jay-Z and Eminem performing “Renegade” on the rooftop:
