I doubt they'll mention it too. But this is pretty far from a groupie situation. Its a team-mate paper-bagging Lebron Jame's mom, which may or may not have led to Lebron's no show in game 5 and his lazy ball-handling in game 6, and may have a huge factor in making him leave Cleveland if it is in any way true.
I know Delonte has had a history of crazy antics and trouble with the law before. But I don't seem to recall what exactly they were. Can you guys reminds us who don't remember his crazyness.
Analyzing this from a logical perspective, since the claim is that Lebron found out about this sometime right between game 4 and game 5, lets look at the stats to see if there is something amiss. Of course, the Celtics defense had a part to play in all of this, so we can't forget about them. But just for curiosity's sake... Game 3: Lebron hasn't heard a thing about the paper-bagging. Lebron James: 39 min, 38 pts, 14/22 FG, 2/3 3PM, 8/9 FT, 8 reb, (+30). Delonte West: 29 min, 14 pts, 5/7 FG, 4/4 FT, (+15). Game 4: Before the game Lebron hears the rumors, and is struggling to dismiss/verify it. Lebron James: 43 min, 22 pts, 7/18 FG, 0/5 3PM, 8/11 FT, 9 reb, (-10). Delonte West: 20 min, 3 pts, 0/7 FG, 3/3 FT, 2 rebounds, (-18). Game 5: Lebron by now has confirmed the rumors and is devastated and pissed. Lebron James: 42 min, 9 pts, 3/14 FG, 0/4 3PM, 9/12 FT, 6 rebounds, (-22) Delonte West: 9 minutes, 2 pts, 1/3 FG, (+5) Game 6: after all the scrutiny about his lebron's terrible play in game 5, decides he can't keep playing he did in game 5 or people will start wondering why. Lebron James: 46 min, 27 pts, 8/21 FG, 2/4 3PM, 19 reb, 10 ast, 9 TO, (-5) Delonte West: 14 min, 3 pts, 0/2 FG, 0/1 3PM, (-12) Now this isn't a pure analysis because of the independent variables like the Celtics, media, etc, but lets see what we can do. Lebron goes from a +30 with 39 points to a whopping -22 with 9 points from games 3 to 5. Everyone comments about his lack of passion and lazy play in game 5, saying that it didn't look like the usual Lebron. Reasons? Who knows. Delonte West goes from about 30 minutes of playing time to 9 minutes of playing time from games 3 to 5. Reasons? Maybe he just sucked so bad with his performance in game 4 that Mike Brown decided to bench him in game 5. Again, the results are inconclusive because we don't have the full picture. I'd like to rewatch games 4-6 to see if Lebron acts in any way different towards West, ie no high-fives, smiles, pats on the back, etc. We could also see how often Delonte and Lebron are on the court at the same time to get a better idea of whats going on.
Delonte West is more likely to get traded, than West making Lebron leave with his mom. Cleveland is his mom's hometown also. If Lebron leaves Cleveland, he runs the risk of his mom staying in Cleveland with her boyfriend(West), friends and other family. If it's true, Cav's management will send Delonte West(an expiring $4.7 mil contract) in the 1st trade of the offseason.
What a weirdo, Delonte's getting his emotional needs met by a mother figure or something. He should be plowing through cheerleaders and groupies like they're low income housing.
We will know the truth if we see recent pics of Lebron's mom with herpe sores all over her mouth. Personally, I've always thought Herpes West had a thing for Lebron (sexually) as he always wanted to be one of the main characters in Lebron and his Merry Men's skits/dance numbers they put on during pregame/during game/post game/during shower time/post game news conference/bus rides up there in Cleveland
If the rumor was made up (and I'm pretty sure it was), it was done by someone who looked at the results of the games. In other words, the story was created to fit into what happened. If the rumor came about completely independently of knowledge of the game results, and they happened to coincide together, then that would be interesting.
So like I said before, another litmus test to check the viability of this rumor is to see how often Lebron and Delonte are on the court together, Lebron's demeanor and treatment towards his team-mate on court and on the bench, etc. If Lebron is high-fiving and laughing with his team-mates including Delonte (as some reports indicate such as the Cav's relaxed mood on the plane-trip to game 6), then we might have a rumor dud. If its the opposite, then the rumor lives on.
*Gloria and Delotne in the heat of passion* Gloria: Tell me what gets you on hon. Delonte: Say the name, babygurl. Gloria: Oh Delonte... Delonte: Wrong **tch! Say LEBRON.
boxscore won't say much since Lebron has had the elbow problem....a better idea is to collect clips of when delonte was on the floor with lebron and watch their body language, especially watch to see how and if lebron passes to him.
The Saddest part about this is that it is true. Lebrons PR is working to keep it as a rumor but apparently it has been confirmed by a couple nba insiders. SMH
