NBA

ESPN May Have Pulled Story Painting LeBron James As Childlike Megalomaniac

Earlier this morning, I found a Twitter link to a LeBron James story by ESPN.com’s Arash Markazi. The article chronicles a recent party LeBron had in Las Vegas, and paints him in a less-than-flattering light. Now, the link is dead, and I’m wondering if ESPN pulled it because of pressure from James’ camp.

>>UPDATE: ESPN has responded, saying the article “should have never been published.“

Chris Littman chronicles the bizarre series of events on his Twitter. He first tweeted about the article’s “funny visual imagery” a few minutes before noon. 15 minutes later, the article was wiped from the face of ESPN, as if it never existed. Luckily, Littman posted a JPEG of the article.

Here are some of the “funny images” from LeBron’s party:

- “Bottle after bottle” of ‘Ace of Spades’ champagne is delivered to LeBron by a waiter who flies down from the dance floor “like an overgrown Peter Pan.” All we can say is, we saw this coming.

- One time the waiter is dressed as a King, another as Indiana Jones. At one point he almost kicks LeBron in the head by accident, to which James says, “I wish they’d have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of this guy.”

- Glen “Big Baby” Davis, apparently at the same club by coincidence, walks by and surveys the spectacle before him. All he can do is shake his head and keep walking.

- LeBron and Lamar Odom teach each other how to Dougie.

- Markazi on James: “The more time you spend around him, the more you realize he’s a child wrapped in 6-foot-8, 250-pound frame.” Yep, that’s probably the line that got Camp James angry.

As Littman points out, this isn’t the first time that LeBron’s handlers may or may not have censored a story about their star. Remember the Jordan Crawford dunk?

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