Carmelo Anthony's best guess, downplaying 'World Wide Wes' and one Yankee who won't push the Big Apple on LeBron.
(Chasing down rumors about LeBron James' basketball future could be a full-time job. Now it's my full-time job. Just call me The Rumor Monger. Every day we'll compile a list of the rumors we're hearing about James and his next contract. Just remember these are just rumors, not necessarily facts. It's going to be a long and rough ride, Cavs fans. Buckle up. -- Mary Schmitt Boyer)
Fellow NBA star and Team USA teammate Carmelo Anthony (right) says he expects his friend LeBron James will return to the Cavaliers after the free-agency period begins next month. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Here's one reason to listen to Carmelo Anthony: At least he says he's been talking to LeBron James recently.
Unlike, oh, say, President Obama, that gives Anthony's comments some weight.
"I think he's going to stay," Anthony told Yahoo! Sports at halftime of Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
Anthony, who said he was going to attend the game with James until James cancelled, said that was just his gut feeling, not something specific from James.
• Shaquille O'Neal tweeted on Tuesday, "I think [Lakers assistant coach] Brian Shaw should get interviewed for that Cleveland Cavaliers job, he's really good."
• In ESPN.com's Rumor Central, Ric Bucher writes on soon-to-be Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, currently a Celtics assistant, and James associate William "World Wide Wes" Wesley.
"World Wide's power-broker reputation takes a big hit with the Thibodeau deal and kills idea LeBron is attached," Bucher says. "Three years -- only two guaranteed -- for $6.5 million is a bargain. Sure, World Wide Wes is saying LeBron is leaning towards Chicago. But World Wide Wes has zero to do with that. If he did and Thibodeau were part of deal, he should be fired for getting three years and $6.5 million. Thibodeau wanted the Chicago job because it's the best. Chicago made a take-it-or-leave-it offer. They didn't want to wait because they did that last [time when hiring Vinny Del Negro]."
Bucher also tweeted, "To be clear: Bulls have door open for LeBron. That's why Mike Brown had no shot at job. But if LBJ comes, it's [without] power he has in Cle."
• ESPN's Cam Martin interviewed Tonya Reiman, author of "The Power of Body Language," about James' interview with Larry King.
She says she believed James when he said he had not decided where he was going, but she didn't believe him when he said he hadn't begun to strategize, citing three shoulder shrugs.
Asked about James claim that Cleveland has the edge in re-signing him, Reiman said, "He said 'absolutely, absolutely.' I didn't think he was being genuine there. I felt like he was saying what he thought people wanted to hear."
Trying to sell LeBron James on New York? The Yankees' Derek Jeter has decided not to swing at that pitch.• Scratch Derek Jeter from the list of New Yorkers trying to convince James to sign with the Knicks.
"It wouldn't make sense," Jeter told Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com. "If I were going to another baseball team, how would a basketball player help? I don't play basketball. I have nothing to do with that."
Jeter told Marchand he knew James but not well.
"He's a nice guy," Jeter said. "He's a big Yankee fan so I've gotten to meet him. I probably think of him as a player like everyone thinks of him as a player -- he can do anything."
• Moving to New York is not necessary to enhance James' marketing possibilities, Darin David, account director at Texas-based The Marketing Arm, tells Kieran Darcy of ESPNNewYork.com.
"[LeBron] is already a megastar playing out of Cleveland," said David, using Indianapolis' Peyton Manning as another example of a marketing star from a smaller market. "The NBA, better than any other league, markets their stars. They've marketed him already as one of their featured players. The Cavaliers get plenty of prime time and featured national [TV] games during the season. I don't know that a move to New York will affect that a whole lot."
Agent Mark Bartelstein told Darcy, "I don't know how big the effects would be from a marketing standpoint. [LeBron] can get pretty much any endorsement he wants. Obviously everything is magnified in New York, more of a glow shines on the franchise, with Madison Square Garden. But LeBron transcends that anyway, wherever he goes."
• Not sure exactly how to take this one, but Gery Woelfel, writing about Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson, in Sunday's Racine (Wis.) Journal Times, "There was also a report Sampson is drawing consideration for the vacant Cleveland Cavaliers' job, although LeBron James hasn't set up a formal interview with him yet."