While We’re Waiting… “Good” Owners, LaPorta’s Glove, and Madden 11 Forecast
August 17, 2010Tribe Comes Through In The End, Top Four Picks Sign
August 17, 2010
“It touched my heart,” said James, watching video of his jersey as it burns on national television. “I understood that a lot of people would be hurt.”
But did he? In one of his latest interviews, James surely did not come off as a man full of awareness.
With the attention of most major sports networks turning to football, the world’s most famous men’s style and luxury magazine Gentlemen’s Quarterly is making sure that LeBron James continues to be a subject of attention well into the month of September.
Donning the cover of the upcoming issue, James is the feature of an entire section at GQ.com titled “The Summer of LeBron.” Columnist J.R. Moehringer spent three weeks with James, managing to turn it into two separate pieces – one about the subject at hand, the other about the author’s experiences with said subject. Also featured on the LeBron-centric page is a video of a photo shoot and a fashion-based feature titled “Inside the Kings closet.”
In token James fashion, the two-time MVP not only crowbars in a few backhanded compliments, but also manages to turn almost every inquiry about others on to himself. When asked about how those close to him feel about his decision to take his talents to South Beach, James replied, “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.”
And for those looking for some third-person responses, LeBron has you covered.
What does James think of Cavaliers principle owner Dan Gilbert, he of the comic sans diatribe that called James a coward?
“I don’t think he ever cared about LeBron,” said James. “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.”
And don’t think that Gilbert is the only “man” who’s character James and family are questioning. Cavs fans, you too seemingly made the mental notes of a man who felt that there would be no ramifications to his Decisions.
“If there was an opportunity for me to return [to Cleveland] and those fans welcome me back, that’d be a great story,” said James. “Maybe the ones burning my jersey were never LeBron fans anyway.”
The author compared LeBron’s Decision and its impact on Cleveland to Poland in 1939. Harsh, perhaps. But we finally may have uncovered the disparity between James and the city that embraced him for seven years. Amazingly, to James, he declares that while growing up, Clevelanders “looked down” on those in Akron – stating that those 30 minutes north were “bigger-city” kids.
“We didn’t actually like Cleveland,” said James. “We hated Cleveland growing up. There’s a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.”
This would explain the mentality behind the Michael Jordan worship, the passive aggressive end to the 2010 playoffs, and – of course – “The Decision.”
And, for his grand finale, James not only pulled out the ever-popular “humble” card once again, but went as far as to deem himself “low maintenance.”
“That’s what keeps me humble, because I know my background, know what my mother went through,” said James. “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.'”
You know, because all “low-maintenance” guys require two lockers in the corner of the locker room right by the trainers, request that their friends have full-time paying jobs and travel amenities with the team, and schedule their own media requests with the networks of their choosing.
And to add more confirmation that James does not “get it,” he felt that Charles Barkley’s latest critical comments were simply Chuck “trying to be funny.”
Unfortunately for James, he was the only one not laughing.
—
All images courtesy of Ben Watts/GQ
55 Comments
So no one is going to comment on the fact that he also talks about rejoining the cavs later in his career? Not even a mention?
I’ve been telling people this since before the announcement, and I’m glad he finally admitted it.
We never had a chance to keep him. Our biggest problem was his lack of a father to turn him into a Cavs fan as a kid (they played in like 15 minutes from his house in Richfield for the first 10 years of his life).
He could care less about Cleveland. He always made sure everyone knew he was from Akron and not Cleveland. We just didn’t want to read between the lines. Just because the media claimed he was a “hometown” kid, doesn’t make it so.
Where Lebron is way off though is that he thought all of Akron would continue to love him if he left. He though Akron was full of Lebron fans, and not Cavs fans. He never realized that most Akron pro sports fans consider themselves Cleveland fans… even if he never did.
This just in. St. Edward basketball > Saint Vincent Saint Mary. Cleveland is way cooler than akron.
@51: I’ll play. You know the first thing that entered my mind when he said that? That he’d be doing us a favor by coming back, and that his coming back would be plenty in and of itself. Let’s say he and the two other Stooges win a couple championships or so in Miami. At the end of his contract in Miami, he decides to return to play for the Cavaliers. I can’t see his desire to win a championship in Cleveland being all that great, being that he’s already got a couple, based on my scenario here. The hunger would be gone. Why would we want him back? In my mind, the answer to that question is that he believes that it would be enough for us to simply have him on the roster, that we would be satiated by having a multi-champion player playing at The Q, that we would be happy simply to be able to say, “we’ve got LeBron on our team”, that he thinks it would be great to simply end up where it all began. He is entering the physical prime of his career right now. We would be happy to get a guy who’s 32 after God knows what injuries will occur between now and then with a reduced (if non-existent) drive to win a championship? Just because he’s from here? More ego, that we’re supposed to jump for joy because the local boy came home. Y’know what James, don’t do us any favors. I, for one, hope he never wears the Cavaliers’ uniform again.
[…] of the attention cast upon the most recent edition of Gentleman’s Quarterly will continue to focus around LeBron James, the former Cavaliers small forward was not the only athlete with Cleveland ties to be featured. […]