According to reports, security had to intervene during the altercation between James and the Heckler, Bob Moore.

Yahoo Sports reports:

LeBron was waiting alone in the backcourt when fan Bob Moore made a comment to LeBron about Delonte West and LeBron’s mom…According to Moore, LeBron said “The only reason you talk sh!t is because you know I can’t come off the court right now and beat your ass…Also according to Moore, LeBron continued “But if I had a free pass, I’d kick your ass right now…Moore replied “I’m right here baby. Let’s go” before security stepped in.

Read More At Yahoo Sports

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According to boostup.org, 46% of all African Americans and 44% of all Hispanics do not graduate high school.

The Huffington Post reports:

“Just like the public service announcement says, without the amazing people in my community, I could have easily ended up a statistic. It was my coaches, teachers, friends, and mentors who gave me the support I needed to stay focused. I know what it means for kids in tough situations to have a strong network of support,” James said in a release announcing the PSA.

Read More At The Huffington Post

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Before the decision LeBron was a popular player playing for a small market team with no superstars. After the decision he became one of the most hated players in the NBA.

USA Today reports:

On what he would do differently:

“If I could look back on it I would probably change a lot of it. The fact of having a whole TV special, and people getting the opportunity to watch me make a decision on where I wanted to play, I probably would change that. Because I can now look and see if the shoe was on the other foot and I was a fan, and I was very passionate about one player, and he decided to leave, I would be upset too about the way he handled it.”

How the hatred from fans affected him:

“It basically turned me into somebody I wasn’t. When you start to hear ‘the villain,’ now you have to be the villain. And I started to buy into it. I started to play the game of basketball at a level or in a mind state that I had never played at before. I mean angry. That’s mentally, and that’s not the way I play the game of basketball.”

Read More At USA Today

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The Miami Heat star toured the Premier League club’s facilities for the first time since becoming a shareholder of the 18-time English champions. James held up the Champions League trophy won by Liverpool in 2005 and posted a picture on Twitter of a red No. 6 jersey with his name on it.

The two-time MVP will sit in the directors’ box at Anfield Stadium for Saturday’s Premier League match against Liverpool rival Manchester United.

“Jersey ready for the big match 2morrow,” James tweeted.

Liverpool’s official website said James held up the Champions League trophy won by Liverpool in Istanbul, Turkey, and was told about the team’s rally from 3-0 down at halftime to beat AC Milan on penalties.

“That is an amazing trophy! Can I hold it up?” James said.

James brought the club store “to a standstill,” the website said, after spending 20 minutes shopping for scarves and clothes for his two young sons back home.

The superstar caused laughter among the fans by attempting to ‘shoot’ a small LFC soccer ball into a basket 10 yards away. He missed.

James will not be joined at the match by Liverpool’s principal owner John Henry, who is dealing with the Boston Red Sox’ failure to make the playoffs.

In April, James obtained a small stake in Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool and the Red Sox.

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Leicester Bryce Stovell’ claims were rejected because he could not prove them and had “not identified any damages.”

Stovall has accused James’ mother Gloria of tampering with a paternity test.

Stovall, a lawyer himself, said he wants to re-take a DNA test and could appeal the dismissal. LeBron’s dad says that he met his mother in a bar in 1984.

Read more at YourBlackWorld.com

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Poor LeBron James doesn’t want to understand why people root against him. By joining the Miami Heat and leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers, he left behind a struggling city to join a team stacked with talent.

Michael Jordan could have easily joined his buddies, Patrick Ewing in New York or Charles Barkley in Philadelphia to increase his championship chances, but he stayed in Chicago to play with less talented teammates until they were a championship caliber team.

When Chicago faced tough teams like the Celtics and the Pistons, Jordan didn’t give up, even when he lost. Despite the fact that the Celtics had a way more talented team that swept the Bulls, no one ever accused Jordan of quitting, like LeBron was accused of last year against the Celtics or this year against the Mavericks.

It took Jordan three playoff series to get through the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boy” teams of the late 80s. Despite the infamous “Jordan Rules,” which consisted of ruthless fouling and double teaming, Jordan never gave up, finally exacting revenge on the Pistons and winning three straight NBA Championships.

But why will LeBron never be able to reach Jordan status?

Competitive spirit.

Michael Jordan’s competitive spirit is what separates him from the rest of the basketball landscape, past and present. Skill-wise, LeBron may be better than Jordan. He is stronger, bigger, and a better rebounder and passer. Still, Jordan is a better clutch player than LeBron ever was or could be. He would always rise to the occasion, while LeBron seems to shy away from them.

James was touted as the next big thing in basketball since he was 12-years-old. Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team as a sophomore. While LeBron skipped college and was always the best player on his team, Jordan played three years at the University of North Carolina; his first being the third best player, behind James Worthy and Sam Perkins. By playing in college, Jordan got his first real experience as a clutch player, hitting the game winning shot in the NCAA Finals.

LeBron went to the NBA right after high school, being deemed the savior of basketball. Jordan was drafted with the number three pick and nobody expected him to be as good as he was. He stuck with his team and made his teammates better. LeBron abandoned them and his former teammates and city loathe him.

While LeBron has a chance to improve his skills, he is too stuck with his personality. By abandoning his team, he showed his true colors. Someone who would rather take a short cut to win an NBA Championship than dedicate himself to bringing a championship to the state that raised and drafted him.

Jordan will go down as a hero in basketball history, while LeBron, even if he manages to win an NBA championship will go down as a villain. When LeBron left the Cavs they had the best record in the league. The next year they had the worst. It wasn’t his team’s fault that they lost to the Celtics, it was his. LeBron quit in that series and then quit on his team.

The three All-Stars (two starters) on the Heat couldn’t beat the one All-Star (on the bench) on the Mavericks; and like against the Celtics, LeBron was the reason they lost. So I’m sorry LeBron, I watched Michael Jordan, I’m a fan of Michael Jordan and quite frankly, you’re no Michael Jordan and never will be.

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While Miami celebrated the crowning of the NBA’s new “Big Three” during a huge ceremony at the American Airlines Arena, and most fans of other NBA teams became increasingly frightened, there were still those who said that basketball was a team sport — and even three superstars can not carry a team to a title alone.

Boy, were they right.

After a game six loss, and a failure to bring home a title to, many critics are arguing that the Heat have only one superstar, and his name is not LeBron James.

LeBron lost his third consecutive playoff series with home-court advantage — something that real superstars don’t do. He also turned the ball over six times in the last game and took only a combined total of  four shots in the second and third quarters, adding to the list of things that real superstar players don’t do.

Though LeBron will receive most of the media-criticism over the next few weeks, even months, the truth of the matter is that the Mavericks played better team basketball and showed why three great players can’t beat a great team.

So, does this mean that Miami will never win a title? Hardly.

If we take LeBron out from under the microscope for a moment, in all fairness, the expectations bestowed upon the entire team may have been a little bit high.

They had a new squad in which only five players from last season returned; unlike the Mavs who have had the same core group of players for years.

As well as being a brand new team, the Heat also had two glaring weaknesses in their point guard and center positions. Veteran point guards such as Mike Bibby, and Eddie House were largely ineffective in the playoffs and Mario Chalmers who is not a true PG, had to carry the load; a task he was not able to fulfill.

At center, Eric Dampier, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Jamaal Magloire were non-factors, leaving a large hole in Miami’s interior defense.

Even though the Heat lacked any sort of substance at two of the most important positions on a basketball team, they were still able to make it six games into the NBA finals. If taken without all of the prior expectations, the loss may not be as much of a failure as it seems.

This offseason for the Heat should be the opposite of last year. Instead of going after big names, the Heat need to secure some role players as well as a true point guard who can control the tempo and facilitate the strength of the “Big Three.”

If Miami can make some deals to strengthen their weaknesses, the 2011 NBA finals will have been just a pot-hole on their road to victory.

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The Dallas Mavericks are now one win away from an NBA title. And the Miami Heat are now one loss away from being one of the biggest disappointments in NBA history.

Last night, the Mavs battled back to defeat the Miami Heat in the pivotal Game 5 of the NBA Finals 112-103.

They led with a balanced scoring attack helmed by star Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 29 points to lead all scorers.

The Heat, who were the target of the media’s fury in the last two days with LeBron James lack of 4th quarter production, didn’t do much to appease critics.

Wade left the game in the second quarter with a hip injury, and was rendered a non-factor for the rest of the game.

James finished with a triple double, but failed to be the aggressor in such a pivotal game.

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Update: Rashard Lewis has shot down this rumor as bogus, and doesn’t know where it originated from.

A rumor has been circulating that LeBron James’ struggles in this NBA Finals series have to do with the infidelity of his girlfriend.

After ESPN journalist Stephen A. Smith reported that LeBron is going through some personal issues, the internet went abuzz with the rumor that Washington Wizards forward Rashard Lewis slept with James’ girlfriend, Savannah Brinson.

The rumor has been tracked back to a Houston area Hip-Hop radio station.

Read more at Miami Times

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Bosh made a 16-foot, go-ahead jumper from the baseline with 39.6 seconds left and Haslem pestered Dirk Nowitzki the rest of the way as the Heat held on for an 88-86 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night for a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals.

“This is a total win,” said Wade, who led Miami with 29 points and 11 rebounds. “You want to win the game on the defensive end of the floor and we got a stop.”

Recent history says this is a huge win for the Heat. The Game 3 winner in a tied finals has won the championship all 11 times since the 2-3-2 format began in 1985.

The Heat are headed into Game 4 on Tuesday night with a chance to do what they did in 2006: win it all on Dallas’ floor. They’ll need to win that game and the next, on Thursday night.

“I feel like we did nothing but get home-court advantage back,” Wade said. “But the next game is a big game. We have to bring our hard hats, understanding it’s going to be tougher to win that game than it was to win this one. I believe in this team. If anyone can do it, I believe we can.”

With all its star power, many expected Miami to be planning a victory parade by now, especially after a solid victory in Game 1.

But the Heat blew a 15-point lead in the last quarter of Game 2, and nearly did it again this time, coughing up a 14-point lead.

The Heat recovered to lead 81-74 with 6:31 left. Everyone knew the Mavericks’ comeback bid would be in Nowitzki’s hands, but it didn’t matter. He still scored 12 straight points – six free throws, a layup, a dunk and a tough jumper – tying it at 86.

With under a minute to go, Wade got the ball to LeBron James near the top of the key. Haslem screened Nowitzki while Bosh got set, took the pass from James and ripped it through the net, quite a thrill for the Dallas native who’d been 0-8 in his hometown. It was even more impressive considering his left eyelid was swollen because of an accidental poke by Jason Kidd in the first quarter, and he’d been misfiring all series, even when his vision was good.

“I don’t care if he missed 15 in a row,” James said. “He was wide open and that’s his sweet spot. … It’s the trust we have in each other’s ability, no matter what the point of the game is at.”

The Mavericks of course went back to Nowitzki on its last two chances. And Haslem was right there both times for the Heat.

Right after Bosh scored, Nowitzki wanted to take a shot near the foul line but had Haslem swarming him and Wade charging at him. He jumped to shoot but twisted and threw toward Shawn Marion near the 3-point line on the right side. Marion had already taken off toward the basket, so the ball went into the front row instead.

After James missed a 3, Dallas had 4.4 seconds left to go for the tie or win. The inbounds pass went to Nowitzki and he was alone against Haslem just above the foul line.

Haslem anticipated what Nowitzki was going to do and walked the fine line between disrupting the shot while avoiding a foul.

“He’s a great player, 7 feet, so he’s going to shoot over me,” Haslem said. “I’ve got to make it tough on him.”

When the buzzer went off, Haslem swung his arms and screamed in delight while a frenzied crowd of 20,340 sighed in agony.

“Emotional game, fought back, and to fall short at the end is tough,” said Nowitzki who scored 34 points. “But they need two more. Hopefully we can play a better all-around game and finally get some shots to go down.”

Wade made 12 of 21 shots and was at his dynamic best from the start, looking like the guy who lifted the Heat past Dallas and to the title in ’06.

“He was aggressive and took good shots,” Bosh said. “We rode the wave for a little while. He set the tone for us.”

Most of his baskets came in the paint – where the Heat outscored the Mavs, 40-22 – and many of them were spectacular. But he also stemmed Dallas’ rally by hitting a go-ahead jumper over Kidd for Miami’s second-to-last basket, and he made sure to keep his teammates properly focused, offering praise or scolding when needed. When James was duped into a shot-clock violation in the final minutes, Wade pounded his fists on his head in frustration.

“I’ve been here before,” Wade said. “So (I was) just trying to lead. My guys did a great job of following that lead. We were able to come out with the win.”

Wade and Bosh each scored seven points in the fourth quarter. Bosh finished with 18 points.

James came in talking about being more aggressive, but wasn’t. He went more than 6 minutes before taking his first shot, but certainly made it worth the wait – a drive through the teeth of the defense for a powerful dunk. He also had a two-handed jam in the second half that put Miami up by 13.

He finished with 17 points and nine assists. He also had four turnovers, including a pair during the fourth quarter – not counting the shot-clock violation – that helped bring Dallas back.

Nowitzki scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, but didn’t get much help, in the period or the rest of the game.

Terry scored 15 and Shawn Marion had 10. Both were shut out in the fourth quarter. The only other scorers were backup point guard J.J. Barea early in the quarter and Tyson Chandler dunking off a rebound.

For the game, Nowitzki made 11 shots, the rest of the Mavericks 17.

“We have to have somebody step up besides Dirk,” said Jason Kidd, who had nine points and 10 assists, but also four turnovers. Giveaways haunted Dallas throughout the game, especially the first half, helping keep Miami comfortably ahead. “We have to figure out how to get up front and play up front. The big thing is we’ve got to be able to make plays late in the game. Game 2 we made the plays, Game 3 we just didn’t.”

Dallas was without backup center Brendan Haywood because of a hip injury. His absence meant more minutes for several frontcourt players, and it put Ian Mahinmi on the court for 8 minutes. He scored two points and committed five fouls.

Miami led by seven after the first quarter, the final three points coming on a buzzer-beater by Mario Chalmers. The Heat lead hit 14 in the second quarter, dipped to five at halftime then ran back to 13 early in the third quarter.

But the Heat couldn’t put the Mavs away. Dallas would surge close or ahead, then Miami would turn it up again. The final 18 minutes played out with both teams realizing any possession could change the game and the series.

Nothing came easy for anyone. Shots were contested, bodies collided for every rebound and guys were flying into the stands after loose balls. Fans stood throughout, wearing their blue gimme T-shirts and fired up by videos such as one featuring encouraging words from Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Nolan Ryan and others.

Ultimately, it was the visitors from Miami who walked off celebrating.

“Now we just have to move on,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “The tough part right now is amnesia. Both teams are highly competitive, this is a competitive series as you can see. We have to really gather ourselves in 48 hours and get right back and do this again.”

NOTES: Bosh on his injured eye: “We’ll spit on it and put a Band-Aid on it and patch it up later.” … Dallas fell to 8-2 at home this postseason. … The Heat and Mavs have each won a road game this series, which should be no surprise. They tied for the best road record in the NBA this season. … Bosh was booed as much as any Miami player during pregame introductions. So much for fans cutting the local kid some slack. … The Mavs fell to 2-1 this postseason in games officiated by Dan Crawford. Dallas came into this postseason having lost 16 of its last 17 playoff games he worked. … Aikman and Terrell Owens sat about 10 seats apart on the same row. Owens attended games in Miami, too.

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Read The Whole Story At Yahoo Sports

Although the Mavericks held an eight point lead in the third quarter, they were overtaken by a 22-10 point margin and the Heat picked up steam towards the end of the game.  Dwyane Wade scored 22 points and was a big help in this win.

During the game, Dirk Nowitzki suffered a broken tendon in his middle finger on his left hand.  He says he should be fine when game two rolls around on Thursday.  This could be an advantage for Miami to use his weakness.  Let’s see how it plays out then.

Read More At SB Nation

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“Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play in the game,” Pippen said, “but I may go so far as to say that LeBron James is the greatest player to ever play the game.”

Pippen’s comments aired on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” show a day after James’ Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls  83-80 to advance to the NBA Finals.

Read more on ESPN.com

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“Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to play the game,” Pippen said Friday on “Mike & Mike In The Morning” on ESPN Radio. “But I may go as far as to say LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will but he keeps everybody involved.

“You have to be on your P’s and Q’s on defense. No guy on the basketball court is not a threat to score with LeBron James out there. Not only will LeBron dominate from the offensive end as well, but he’s also doing it on the defensive end, which really makes him the complete package. He’s able to get in those passing lanes, shoot those gaps and create transition opportunities where he is pretty much unstoppable.”

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Down by twelve with only four minutes to go, the team rallied.  Within the forth quarter alone, LeBron James & Dwyane Wade scored a combined 22 points and led the team to victory in a game that many thought they would’ve lost given what had happened most of the time frame.

This will be the first time for the Miami Heat to make it to the finals since 2006, as is the Dallas Mavericks.  When they faced off five years ago, the Heat beat them in six games.  Dwyane Wade was named the MVP of the series.  This one will be super important for both teams as the word “Dream” comes into play for them.  Miami has the quote unquote “Dream Team” with Dwyane, LeBron and Chris Bosh.  The “Dream” aspect with Dallas was that no one predicted they would still be in it, and silenced people when they stormed against the LA Lakers.  Good luck to both!

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The Miami Heat are now one win away from reaching the NBA Finals after defeating the Bulls 101-93 in overtime last night taking a 3-1 series lead.

LeBron James and Chris Bosh once again had big nights, scoring 35 and 22 points respectively. Although they won, Dwyane Wade had somewhat of an off night, only scoring 8 points until late in the game.

The fifth and possible final game in this series will be in Chicago on Thursday – where if Miami wins – this will be their first time making it to the finals since 2006. The same goes for the Dallas Mavericks, who are one away from winning as well.

Read More At Yahoo Sports

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The Miami Heat evened the Eastern Conference finals at one game a piece with a 85-75 victory Wednesday evening over the Chicago Bulls.

Led by Lebron James’ 29-point effort, Miami scored an important road victory days after coming off a double digit loss to Chicago in game one.

Despite battling a head cold, James’ late game heroics were enough to thwart a mighty Chicago run down the stretch.

NBA MVP, Derick Rose led the Bulls with 21-points, but ultimately fell short as Miami outshot Chicago 47.1 to 34.1 percent from the field.

The series heads to Miami on Sunday for game 3 at 8pm EST.

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Looks like I’m going to owe my friend Corey $100 because at the beginning of this NBA season, he took the Heat to win it all and I took the Lakers.

Luckily, there’s a “no pay for a push” clause so even though I can’t win, I still might not lose provided the Heat don’t win it.

But I’m actually hoping to lose my cash and for two reasons:

1) I believe that if the Heat win it this year, they’ll have “shot their load” clearing the way for my Knicks to win the NBA title next year.

2) The essence of what America’s supposed to be about can be summed up with the words: “LeBron James: NBA Champion.”

We know that America pays lip service to “freedom.” Slaveowners have given us great expressions like “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” “all men are created equal” and “give me liberty or give me death.”

Those words were used to make men aspire to freedom.

They were not, however, used with the intention that men would actually attain freedom.

A free man would be unbearable. A free man would move and think and act on his own accord.

There could be no laws to govern a free man, save his own morality.

Worst of all, a free man would be a constant reminder of the restraints that hold the rest of us in place.

But now that we’re all actually “witnessing”— and genuinely this time — a man in the throes of complete freedom, we’re also coming to realize just how vile, repulsive and ugly it is to watch.

Everything about LeBron James is wrong by traditional American standards.

The Founding Fathers would be aghast!

Not only is this big, Black buck not picking cotton somewhere, but he actually gets to keep all the money that he makes—for himself!—he’s chosen not only his own vocation, but the location of that vocation, and despite undoubtedly being subjected to just as much mental programming as the rest of us, he picked a pretty Black woman as his other half; nothing short of a fashion faux pas by the standards of today’s successful Black man.

Now while a demonstration of a free body and spirit may just be sickening, a demonstration of a free mind is an absolute abomination.

Our problem with the free however, isn’t just the personal affront they represent, but also the fact that we always have a better idea of how they should use their freedom than they seem to have.

Prototypical of this idea is Michael Jordan who famously said that if presented with the opportunity like LeBron’s, he “would have never called up Larry (Bird), called up Magic (Johnson) and said ‘hey, let’s get together and play on one team… I was trying to beat those guys.’”

Clearly Jordan’s mad that not everybody’s trying to be “like Mike.”

But back to the action: I watched Game 4 of the Heat-Celtics series and started yelling when LeBron scored on Paul Pierce after having had his back turned to the basket.

“Finally!” I screamed. “I’ve been watching this guy for 8 years and the first time I’ve seen him use a post-up move! If I was 6’8″, 260…”

See that?

Even I have to catch myself sometimes…

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“What’s the big deal?!” critics of modern society will cry! “It’s not like he called someone a slur like Kobe!” Let’s start by recognizing that these are two separate incidents, unrelated to one another, and there’s room for us to look at both through the lens of their impact on society. The use of such a term only propogates a cultural and societal feeling of disgust and derision for those physically or mentally handicapped. The actual clinical definition describes a lowered intelligence quotient, but the term isn’t used in that manner with any discretion or consideration. I’m far from an expert on physical and mental disability, but it’s pretty plain that anything which would casually deride victims of such a condition is unacceptable. Sticks and stones and what not, but James’ comment still sets an example This isn’t a high bar, here, people.

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The person spoke Monday night on the condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has not been made. That could come Tuesday, with a formal presentation before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The news is hardly a surprise.

Rose is the second Bulls player to win the MVP but has a ways to go before he catches Michael Jordan, who won five – but he sure is off to a good start. In his third year, the dynamic point guard led the Bulls to their best season since the Jordan-Scottie Pippen championship era.

“If I get it? It’ll be nice, unbelievable, a goal that in the beginning in the year I said I wanted to achieve,” Rose said recently when asked what the award would mean to him. “It would be huge, not only for me, but for the city.”

He ended the two-year MVP reign of LeBron James, who spurned the Bulls and bolted from Cleveland to form a superstar triumvirate with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The 22-year-old Rose also supplanted Wes Unseld as the youngest MVP. He was 23 was the rookie of the year and MVP with Baltimore Bullets for the 1968-69 season.

A product of Chicago’s South Side, Rose continued his impressive rise this season.

He established himself as one of the top players in the league after going from Rookie of the Year to an All-Star in his first two seasons with one of the best all-around performances by a point guard.

He averaged 25 points and 7.7 assists while leading Chicago into championship contention.
Story continues below

For all the groaning over the Bulls missing out on James, Wade and Bosh in free agency, they did quite well for themselves anyway.

Looking for more after back-to-back 41-win seasons and first-round playoff exits, they fired coach Vinny Del Negro and replaced him with Tom Thibodeau. Then, they landed Carlos Boozer and supporting players like Kyle Korver, giving the Bulls the inside scoring presence they were lacking and one of the deepest rotations.

It all added up to this – a 62-20 record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. They advanced past the first round for just the second time since the championship era, and the biggest reason for all that, of course, was Rose.

He showed up to training camp openly wondering why he couldn’t be MVP. Then, he backed it up.

He ranked seventh in scoring and 10th in assists, making him the only player this season in the top 10 in both categories. The only other Bulls player to do that was Jordan in 1988-89, when he led the league in scoring (32.5 points) and finished 10th in assists.

Throw in a 4.1 rebounding average, and Rose joins another elite group. He’s the seventh player in league history to average at least 25 points, 7.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds, along with Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Wade and James, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

In the postseason, he’s been just as impressive.

He scored 39 and 36 points in the first two playoff games against Indiana. Then he shook off two sub-par performances not to mention a sprained left ankle to score 25 points in Game 5 as the top-seeded Bulls closed out what had been a tight first-round series with a 116-89 victory.

They stumbled in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Atlanta, losing 103-95. Rose scored 24 points, but he hit just 11 of 27 shots and did not attempt a free throw. He also limped off the court after twisting his left ankle in the closing seconds, sending a chill through Chicago, but he said he expects to be ready for Game 2 on Wednesday.

Rose has been a star in Chicago since high school. He helped Simeon Career Academy become the first Chicago Public League team to win back-to-back Illinois state championships, then led the University of Memphis to the NCAA championship game in his lone college season before the Bulls drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2008.

Since then, he’s been everything Chicago imagined.

He’s added new wrinkles to his game every season, expanding the range on his jumper to go with those explosive drives to the basket. He went from shooting 22.2 percent and 26.7 percent on 3-pointers his first two years to a more respectable 33.2 percent this season, and his scoring average again climbed about four points after going from 16.8 to 20.8 his first two years.

No surprise there.

He was a fixture at the team’s practice facility in the offseason when he wasn’t getting ready for the world championships, and when he was on the road, he was constantly checking in, asking about his teammates and what he should be doing.

That struck Thibodeau, the long time NBA assistant who finally got a shot to be head coach after helping Boston win a championship and get back to the NBA finals. So did the experience Rose gained with the national team, particularly playing alongside Chauncey Billups.

Now, the kid from the South Side who led his hometown team back to prominence can call himself MVP.

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MIAMI, Fl. — Rockfeller Sorel, the Miami Beach parking attendant who was slapped by Lebron James’ mom is suing for $15,000 in damages.

The Root reports:

Sorel is seeking $15,000 in damages for negligence, assault and battery due to the “emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish, medical care and treatment, the loss of ability to earn money and the loss of capacity for enjoyment of life” he suffered. James’ lawyers had no comment.

Sorel told police that he waited with the SUV for 30 minutes while James chatted with friends. He gave the key to the cashier and James reportedly began yelling, “where are my f—ing keys?” and other profanities.

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Los Angeles — This past All-Star Weekend, Jay-Z and NBA Super-Star LeBron James teamed up with Sprite to make a donation to a local Boys & Girls Club gym.

The donation helped make numerous improvements to the gym, including a mural by infamous tattoo artist Mr Cartoon was also presented.

Watch:
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Miami Heat forward LeBron James, rear, looks for an open teammate past Cleveland Cavaliers guard Anthony Parker (18) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI — LeBron James sees no reason to enjoy Cleveland’s epic struggles this season.

And it doesn’t give him a sense of vindication, either.

Speaking before the Miami Heat faced the Cavaliers on Monday night, James says Cleveland’s descent from a championship contender to the NBA’s worst team does nothing to prove that he made the right choice in joining up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in South Florida.

Cleveland entered Monday on a 20-game losing streak and brought an 8-39 record into the contest, the worst mark in the league. With James, the Cavaliers were the among the NBA’s elite, but not even seven months after he made “The Decision,” Cleveland is approaching the league losing-streak record.

“It didn’t matter for me if the Cavs were going to have a successful season or not,” James said. “I felt like I was making the right choice for me as an individual and for my career. Like I said, I have nothing bad to say about the players that I left and the team. I wish the organization the best. And I wish the fans, more than anything, the best because we had a lot of great years together.”

James was with the Cavaliers for seven seasons, vowing to bring a championship to the title-starved city. Cleveland reached the NBA finals once with James, but never hoisted the trophy, and the Akron native decided last summer to accept significantly less money than the Cavaliers were willing to pay in order to sign a six-year deal with Miami.

Monday’s game was the third time Miami and Cleveland have met since James switched uniforms. Unlike the first two, it almost seemed like a regular game instead of having a circus atmosphere.

“The first two were kind of crazy, but now both teams went their separate ways,” Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. “Obviously they’re doing extremely well and we have been hit with the unbelievable injury bug and all kind of other stuff that has happened. I think it is just a game right now and I think that’s how both teams look at it.”

James agreed, noting that Cleveland has been hit with more injuries than even Miami – which has been without him, Wade and Bosh at times of late, plus have a number of other hobbled players.

Cleveland entered Monday three losses shy of tying the single-season NBA futility record shared by the 1995-96 Vancouver Grizzlies and 1997-98 Denver Nuggets. Overall, the Cavaliers came into the Miami game having lost 30 of their last 31 games, along with 23 straight on the road.

Cleveland’s franchise already owns the all-time NBA losing-streak record, a 24-game slide that spanned from March to November 1982.

“We just keep fighting. That’s all you can do,” Scott said. “You’ve got two choices, either you’re going to fight or you’re going to lay down. I don’t think we have any guys that will just lay down. We don’t on the coaching staff. So we’re just going to keep fighting and keep working every day.”

The Cavaliers’ injury woes are so pronounced, James doesn’t even have a sense of familiarity with most of the roster anymore. Most of the key teammates he had in Cleveland a year ago – Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, Shaquille O’Neal – are either hurt, playing for another team, or in the case of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, running alongside him in Miami.

“It’s strange. … They’re going through a lot of struggles right now,” James said.

Like Scott, he said he appreciated that Monday wasn’t the sort of spectacle that his return to Cleveland was in early December.

“After the first one, it couldn’t get any worse,” James said. “Or better, depending on the situation. I’m happy that at this point in the season, we’re playing some good ball, whether it’s against the Cavs or whatever.”

The show will debut this spring on YouTube as well as his website. Expect to see young LeBron, old LeBron, athletic LeBron and business LeBron on the series.

“I’m mostly a kid at heart,” James told the New York Times, “and I’m the athlete, of course, that everyone sees, but I also have a business side, a cool side and I love antique stuff and classical music. I guess that’s the old man side of me.”

Read more at BlackVoices.com

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Miami — After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the Los Angeles Lakers by 55 points LeBron James left a Twitter message that seemed to be directed at the Cavaliers and their fans.

Crazy. Karma is a b****.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!

After a slow start, the Miami Heat have the best record in the Eastern Conference of the NBA, and have won 9 straight games, while the Cavaaliers.

The Cavaliers only scored 57 points in that game while Kobe Bryant only needed 13 points to propel the Lakers to a 112-57 points victory over the Lakers.

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Of my three main New Year’s resolutions:

1. Stop getting angry as quickly, violently and easily,

2. Stop referring to other people and even thinking of them as “idiots”,

3. Say the word “relax” over and over to calm myself down

The only one that wasn’t broken literally seconds after the clock struck 12 was the third one.

I’m far from perfect and I expect people to literally see my insanity reeking from my pores when they look at me.

I talk to myself out loud and laugh like a maniac at jokes that only I would understand because they’re playing themselves out on the widescreen inside my own head.

Yet, of course, I’m Black, educated, fit, working, beautiful and all the other things that all the ladies love.

But am I… wrong?

Since I was the nut that declared 2011 “The Year of the Black Woman”, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least try to sum up the current state of the Black man.

Judging by myself as an example, we’re f*cked.

The ones of us that are ½ witty think we’re brilliant, the ones of us that are ½ cute think we’re Adonis’s, the ones of us that earn ½ decent salaries think were “Black” Bill Gates and Donald Trumps and we all think we’re sex gods.

And these are just the brothers you see on the street that aren’t in jail and actually like women and Black women at that.

The other brothers don’t exactly count because, believe it or not, we represent an elevated plane to their current state of depravity.

In other words, the junkies, conmen, crooks and liars have to work their way up to our level.

The problem, since I am gonna have to finally admit that there is a problem, is that very few of us have an internal ideal that’s entirely independent of any preexisting archetypes.

You’ll catch that whenever you hear a Black man use either one of two phrases: “I’m like…” or “If that was me…”

You hear these all the time.

“I’m like Jay-Z”

Or

“LeBron shouldn’t have gone to Miami. If that was me…”

Both of these phrases are symbolic of our need to distance ourselves from ourselves in order to gain perspective when probably the ability to use external guideposts in order to gain internal focus would be preferable.

Or maybe this is a phenomenon that occurs in all men but I notice it in us the most.

Now, this was a great post, wasn’t it?

Humility should have been my 4^th New Year’s resolution.

So now, despite the fact that I’ve done ya’ll a fantastic service by writing this, I’d like to thank everyone that took the time to read it.

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Miami – Maybe LeBron James should have gone to college.

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Miami — Lebron James thinks that the league would see an increase in the quality of its play if it contracted from its current 30 teams.

The NBA has long sought to expand its global reach by playing exhibition games overseas, promoting the considerable number of foreign players within its ranks and cultivating a new generation of young, marketable superstars. But one of the game’s biggest stars has a different idea about how the league can further improve: it can shrink.

Miami Heat star LeBron James, who left a small market team in Cleveland for the high-profile shores of South Beach and fellow all-stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, thinks that the league would see an increase in the quality of its play if it contracted from its current 30 teams, reports ESPN.

“Hopefully the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the ’80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars on the same team,” James said in an interview with the network. “The league was great. It wasn’t as watered down as it is [now].”

When asked what teams he would cut, James demurred, but did cite how moving certain players could be a good thing.

“Imagine if you take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]. Looking at some of the teams that aren’t great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren’t good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let’s take New Jersey and let’s take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I’m not stupid, it would be great for the league.”

Read entire article at NBCwashington.com

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CLEVELAND — Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert insists he has moved on from LeBron James. But on to what?

Gilbert has reportedly enlisted a law firm to investigate the circumstances leading to James leaving Cleveland to sign with the Miami Heat this summer.

Yahoo! Sports reported on Wednesday that Gilbert has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Midwestern law firm to investigate suspicions that the Heat broke NBA tampering rules while pursuing James, who left the Cavs after seven seasons to join fellow stars Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami.

The timing of the report is interesting since James will return to play in Cleveland for the first time on Thursday night, in what promises to be a hostile Quicken Loans Arena.

On Tuesday, Gilbert, who was highly critical of James following the superstar’s televised announcement in July, was asked about his emotions heading into the reunion with the two-time league MVP.

“I’m over it,” he said. “I really am. That’s the truth. I let it all out in about 24 hours. I just think we have such a great core and a great coaching staff. We have a lot of opportunities with the trade exception and the draft. I feel good about this team.”

Team spokesman Tad Carper said Wednesday night the Cavaliers are declining comment on the Yahoo! report, which citing anonymous league sources, says Gilbert plans to present NBA commissioner David Stern with a detailed case with the hopes of launching a tampering investigation.

According to Yahoo’s sources, Gilbert will spare no expense to uncover whatever evidence he can to take to the league office and that law firm staff includes several former prosecutors with backgrounds in investigating and constructing cases.

Also, the report states that the firm is probing an alleged meeting between James and Heat president Pat Riley in November 2009 and a meeting between James’ inner circle and Wade in Chicago last June.

The report adds another element to James’ homecoming, which figures to be an emotional night for the 25-year-old and Cleveland fans.

Gilbert is expected to be in his usual baseline seat next to the Cavaliers bench, where he’ll have an up-close view of what promises to be a memorable event.

In the hours after James announced his intentions to leave Cleveland, Gilbert fired off a scathing letter to Cleveland fans in which he lambasted his former star player, calling him “narcisstic” and vowing the Cavaliers would win an NBA title before “the self-declared former King.”

Later that night in an interview with The Associated Press, Gilbert accused James of quitting in last season’s playoffs.

“He quit,” Gilbert said. “Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar. … People have covered up for him for way too long.”

For the letter and his comments, Gilbert was fined $100,000 by Stern.

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MIAMI (AP) — If the Miami Heat changing room was polled, LeBron James would not have unanimous support in the race for Time’s Person of the Year.

James wouldn’t even vote for himself.

Calling it “crazy” just to be on the list of finalists for the award, the NBA’s reigning two-time MVP seemed almost a bit embarrassed on Monday when he learned that he was one of the final 25 names under consideration. The winner of the award, bestowed since 1927 on a person or group who “has done the most to influence the events of the year,” is expected to be revealed next month.

“I am who I am and I think I’m in a position of my life where I’m going to get better every day,” James said after Miami wrapped up its practice Monday. “But it’s too much.”

Other finalists this year include President Barack Obama (the 2008 winner), Lady Gaga, Sarah Palin, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, conservative commentator Glenn Beck, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Also on the list: The trapped Chilean miners who spent more than two months underground before finally being reached and rescued in a gripping story that was covered worldwide.

“That’s just crazy,” James said. “What those guys did, the courage and what they stood for, I should be nowhere near that list. Nowhere near it.”

Charles Lindbergh was the first winner of the award. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only three-time winner, and most recent winners include Vladimir Putin in 2007, Obama in 2008 and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2009.

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