Yesterday, we mentioned that next month’s cover of Gentlemen’s Quarterly will feature Cavaliers forward LeBron James. We mentioned the last time that he was featured inside of the magazine, during a time where there were more questions about James than there were answers. Now that he has answered nearly every critic with his play on the floor, we get to read about the next wave of James’ career. That of politics, family, his friends and even a mention of the New York Knicks.
The entire new interview can be found here. But if you do not have time to check out the whole thing, I thought it would be worth highlighting the following quotes. Do enjoy.
In regard to the GQ crew’s arrival into Cleveland, Ohio…
You can see the Nike billboard from the interstate. LeBron’s massive, striated arms outstretched, a faint halo of chalk dust surrounding him as he gazes skyward. It’s ten stories high and 212 feet wide and dominates the eastern face of the Sherwin-Williams building, which is basically across the street from Quicken Loans Arena, or the Q, where the Cavs play their home games. Last year, federal officials tried to force the city to take it down because it violates the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which apparently forbids a billboard from being within 660 feet of a major highway. (Technically, the dispute was over a previous version of the banner, an equally stunning if less messianic image of LeBron in midflight, the ball cocked high above his head.) But to his great credit, Ohio’s governor, Ted Strickland, refused to remove the billboard, referring to it as a “beautiful display of commercial art” that the people of Cleveland have the rare and wonderful opportunity to enjoy.
…the contrast between lake and sky is still imperceptible; and then finally realizing that the people of Cleveland live a large portion of their lives inside a howling, subfreezing, youth-repelling, job-vanishing, anti-light box. It makes you appreciate a little more why Ted Strickland would go to the mats over the giant billboard.
Filed under “something I need to see during an actual game”
…Wally Szczerbiak is making his way around the arc, shooting until he makes 200 three-pointers. He knocks down his last eight shots and looks at the assistant who’s been feeding him and says, “What’s the count?” and the guy says, “236,” which I take to mean that it took Szczerbiak 236 shots from behind the three-point line to make 200. Eighty-five percent. This isn’t at all central to this article, but da*n, Wally Szczerbiak can fill it up…
During their 3-on-3 game with James…
After a stretch of truly embarrassing ugliness, the points start piling up on our side. Turns out LeBron James is a very good passer and sees things on the court that the rest of us don’t see. He threads some very pretty passes to Adam and me, and we manage to hit the layups, and soon we’re up 12–2. “They don’t play no D,” he says. “They don’t play no D. New York Knicks.”
And Lovell closes with…
I’m a lifelong New York Knicks fan, and before going to play LeBron I was getting pretty pumped about the prospect of him coming to New York in 2010 and saving the franchise. But sitting there watching Will and Fred tramp around in the snow to get the best angle, their breath rising in the already dark air, all I thought was, man, I hope you don’t leave Cleveland. I hope you stay here. This is your place. It’s written on your body. Stay with your high school girlfriend and raise your kids in your giant house and win championship after championship and let the side of the Sherwin-Williams building be an evolving piece of public art in a way it could never be anywhere else. You can be so much more, mean so much more, if you stay here. Don’t leave. Just don’t do it.
I think I kind of like this guy. The author isn’t too bad either.
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 2088 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
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I’m going to read the whole article tonight when I’m home but it seems like the author did a pretty good job of putting LeBron’s impact on the city in perspective, especially for someone who admittedly came in with machinations of NY LBJ (NK).
The last paragraph is an amazing admittal of what we all hope and feel. Mucho respecto for the author.
could he get any bigger?
cover of GQ, cover of SI, cover of Vogue (with bonus Heidi), cover of ESPNmag… okay that last one kinda sucks.
3-on-3 with LBJ. who gets to do that? i hate this author on prinicple alone.
I got kind of choked up reading that last paragraph
this article was really good, i especially loved the last paragraph
the last paragraph is amazing
that last quote is awesome. well written. almost written like a true clevelander.
The last paragraph just about sums it up.
Good article…I guess. Not too thrilled w/ the depiction of Cleveland which plays so much into the stereotypes that it’s almost banal.
Great article. Humboldt, it’s the truth in the winter time, think about it. If you came here as a visitor you’d see it the same way. We just happen to have a passion for this place. At least I do.
I hope LeBron reads that and he is as impacted by the article as I feel I am.
@S-Dub: the subtext of that passage is that Clevelanders lack any sense of aesthetic taste to the point that a giant corporate billboard has become a “cultural landmark” that the city’s inhabitants simply prostrate themselves before when they aren’t holed up in their dwellings. It just plays in to the same old midwestern stereotypes that typecast Clevelanders as troglodytes with simple values and simple tastes. I come from a lower middle class family in the city and have been battling these stereotypes after leaving town for college so am just a bit fatigued by the same old depictions.
I’m not rejecting the whole article – like you, I think the final passage is profound and could potentially have resonance w/ LBJ if he reads it. But I don’t want to let the author off the hook that easy.
Like everyone else, that last paragraph rocked. I got chills reading that…that’s really cool. It’s like he understands what he means to this city and actually respects and understands that loyalty. I don’t know. That was a really cool comment and I’d read the whole thing just based on that.
last paragraph = my dreams, my prayers, my heart.
I enjoyed the article a lot… the issue is the last paragraph conflicts with becoming a billion $$$ athelete. If he really wants that as his goal, then its going to be hard for Cleveland to keep him. Even if we were able to match the Big Market Dollars, he has more endorsement value in the Big Markets.
Sad, but true.
I don’t think many would argue that point, but that’s not what most got out of that paragraph. At least I didn’t. Comments like that seem to be very pure and from the heart…far removed from the point you made. I think we are all drawn to it for that exact reason. It just shows the human element on such a huge figure and scenario.