Backlash over James' ability to take the spotlight away from the NBA Finals continues with each new piece of James news.
If it appears that Kobe Bryant is less than enthusiastic when it comes to a LeBron James question during the NBA Finals ... you're simply seeing a case of a picture being worth 1,000 words.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Larry King interview of The King, LeBron James, came and went on the eve of Danny Ferry's resignation as Cavaliers general manager Friday. Not a single bombshell, small or large, was dropped by James.
However, backlash over James' share of the spotlight away from the NBA Finals -- where the L.A. Lakers lead Boston, 1-0 -- continues with each new piece of James news.
Friday, there was James' interview on CNN, Ferry's resignation and James declining to comment on the move, speculation that he might release special Free Agency Tour 2010 shoes and questions posed to everyone in the NBA world about whether it was right for James to garner so much attention without actually playing basketball.
"I don't care about attention," the Lakers' Kobe Bryant said in a formal press conference. "It doesn't mean anything to me."
Later, CBSsports.com's Ken Berger got more detail from Bryant about James.
"I don't deal with that, and I don't think about it," Bryant said. "I know him personally, and he's a great person; a great person and a hell of a player. My deal with him is, I wish people would just leave him the hell alone and let him do his thing and that's all I'll say about that. I really don't think about anything other than just him doing well."
The New York Post's Marc Berman asked specifically, of course, whether Bryant knew if his buddy James is going to New York.
"You're asking me if LeBron is going to New York?" Bryant told The Post. "I'm trying to tell you in a polite way, I don't give a [bleep].
"As a fan, it's a big deal. You're talking about LeBron and Dwyane Wade, it's two huge names changing cities. It alters things drastically in the NBA. But I really don't care about it."
Berger also caught up with Magic Johnson, who defended James' right to seek publicity.
"I don't think [the criticism] is fair," Magic said. "We've never had a summer like we're going to have in the NBA, and we've probably never had a guy like this on the free-agent market -- and the other guys, as well. And what's good about it is, the NBA is staying in people's faces, so I like that. So I would say, 'Continue to do what you're doing.' And also, he's doing it on the off days, so it's given people something to think about while the series has two days off.
"You know, hey, the man is great, he's got personality. You know we were upset when these guys were not marketing our league; I was upset. Now, they've got guys going out here and doing it."
Meanwhile, the report that said James planned to partner with Nike to release a Free Agency Tour 2010 set of sneakers turned out to be false, according to ESPN's Chris Broussard.
"The report is not true," Nike spokesman KeJuan Wilkins said. "Nike is not creating any shoes in relation to LeBron's free agency."
That's a good thing, wrote Broussard: "Everyone who read about that supposed plan must have grimaced and screamed, 'Yuck!' Talk about a PR blunder. That would've been the Titanic, the Michael Jordan, the Rolls-Royce of PR blunders."
Speaking of Nike, ESPN TrueHoop's Henry Abbott said the shoe company has tons at stake this summer -- and not all of it is wrapped up in James. Other free agents who have Nike deals include Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson, Amar'e Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki.
Wrote Abbott: "Two people with insight into the inner workings of the basketball shoe industry point out that Nike has as many dollars at stake in 2010 NBA free agency as anybody, and it's not exactly in the way you might expect. ... One of the experts suggested that in that analysis, the Cavaliers, Bulls and Heat -- teams with more developed rosters than the Knicks or Nets -- would be the favorites."
Which, of course, leads us to having no idea where James is headed, still, with 24 days until free agency.