LeBron Knows How to Party but ESPN Pulls Off the Story. Boo!

ESPN Pulls Story Showing LeBron James in Full Party Mode

The central part of the piece is centered at Tao, a nightclub and restaurant at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, with depictions of James, surrounded by Paul, four of James' childhood friends, a man who at one time was in a relationship with James' mother, Gloria, and two employees of Nike, his shoe endorser.

At one point in the story, the writer describes a scene in which a pair of apparently nude women are stationed in a bathtub full of water and rose petals, which appears to be a regular occurrence at Tao.

In another scene, depicted in the picture that accompanies this story, a giant red crown-shaped cake is brought into an area near James while go-go dancers hold aloft placards that read KING.

Markazi describes another scene in which a waiter, apparently suspended aloft by wires, flies in to deliver numerous bottles of champagne. At that point, James reportedly said, "I wish they'd have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of the guy."

An ESPN source said the decision to pull the web piece was entirely made by the company's editorial staff, with no input or demand from James or his marketing staff.

Saved image of the original article. Clickity me!

Seated to the right of James is Chris Paul, whose brother, C.J., is seated across from him. The New Orleans Hornets point guard has seen how James has positioned himself to win a championship by signing with the Miami Heat and joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and has reportedly considered a similar move himself.

The truth is, in James' dream world, the duo he would love to play with for the next decade would be Wade and Paul, his two closest friends in the NBA. Paul has been like a brother to James since the two were in Las Vegas four years ago for USA Basketball training camp, when as a rookie he carried James' and Wade's bags to and from the team bus.

Nothing surprising about the bag carrying. Rookie hazing is a fixture in the NBA. Even the Dream Team made Christian Laettner their bag boy. iirc the entire team made Chris Paul carry their bags by tying all of it around him. Funny sight really. Saw it in a USA Basketball special.

Toward the end of the night, Boston Celtics forward Glen Davis walks past James' party and looks at the scene up and down several times like a painting in a museum, soaking in the images of the go-go dancers, the "King" sign and the costumed man delivering bottles of champagne.

Davis shakes his head and walks on.

Big Baby is sooo lame.
He's there to party and have fun. What a baby.

From the same site, a column suggesting that LeBron's camp had the article pulled a la Dunkgate. Maybe they did, or maybe ESPN's telling the truth and an article without approval was accidentally posted and subsequently removed. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Sounds like LeBron's living it up on a trip to Las Vegas and why not? So long as he doesn't make a special about which clubs he's going to frequent or what he's going to gamble on, it's all good.

That entry isn't suggesting anything, it's just evidence-less speculation from a pre-determined POV that rejects the OP's story having a "source" saying it was otherwise. And ESPN themselves:

However, Josh Krulewitz, an ESPN spokesman said the company was looking into the circumstances surrounding the publication of the story, but added, "The story should have never been published. The draft was inadvertently put on the server before going through the usual editorial process. We are in the midst of looking into the matter.

I bet that if the story stayed up from the start Bethlehem Shoals would be writing a column about how horrible it is for LeBron to have such a party at a club.

Hahaha. Whatever Queen James does, it makes the headline. Like whatever I say on Bron, makes me a homer.

Big Baby probably just couldn't get in.

Big Baby probably just couldn't get in.

Nah, Big Baby is just more mature than Lebanon James.

A story on the doings of LeBron James while he and other NBA players were in Las Vegas last weekend will not run on ESPN.com because the reporter did not identify himself as a reporter, an ESPN executive said Thursday.

Rob King, vice president and editor in chief of ESPN Digital Media, said in a statement issued by the company that Arash Markazi, a Los Angeles-based columnist, did not "properly identify himself as a reporter or clearly state his intentions to write a story."

"As a result, we are not comfortable with the content, even in an edited version, because of the manner in which the story was reported," King said in the statement.

King stressed that the piece, which detailed a weekend where James, his personal friends and marketing partners, as well as Nike employees and other NBA players, were served champagne by flying waiters and partied around go-go dancers and scantily clad women, was not quashed at the behest of James or other outside sources.

"To be clear, the decisions to pull the prematurely published story and then not to run it were made completely by ESPN editorial staff without influence from any outside party," King said.

Any story on queen James is better than no story. ESPN is doing their jobs the right way in that regard.

At least it's not like the dunk tape incident.

delonte west The milfhunter!!