Nike exec stays neutral, but he's about the only one in sampling the current LBJ rumor temperature.
Regardless of LeBron James' decision, there's going to be a lot of wasted Photoshop work across the NBA landscape in a few weeks.(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)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- And now, finally, a comment from someone who actually has a stake in the outcome.
Nike brand president Charlie Denson was asked if his company would like to see James end up in New York.
"I think LeBron is going to try to pick the best place where he can win, and wherever that is, we're OK with that," Denson told Newsday's Neil Best.
There you have it.
• One of my favorite New Yorkers, ESPNNewYork.com columnist Johnette Howard, wonders whether James is tough enough to handle the inevitable criticism that comes with playing in New York.
"Does James, 25, really have the guts to walk out on his home state of Ohio and a Cavs team that, however flawed, still led the league in wins this year?" Howard asks. "Does the NBA's biggest star want to start over in his eighth NBA season, shoulder everything that playing in a crucible like New York demands, then deliver on the court?"
But she thinks his arrival would shift the balance of sports power in the city.
"His presence would guarantee that New York City wouldn't be a baseball town anymore," writes Howard, though I respectfully disagree. "New York would feel like the center of the basketball universe again, something it hasn't felt like for quite a while. There would be a trickle-down effect. The drifting local college programs, the Rucker League, the pickup action on playgrounds from the Bronx to Brooklyn, Harlem to the West Village, would all take on a different buzz. The city game would make a comeback."
She also says, "James would own the tabloid back pages."
Like that's a good thing?
• James Gandolfini, aka Tony Soprano, ad libbed a plea to James during his appearance on Spike TV's "Guys Choice" event last Saturday in Culver City, Calif.
"First things first," Gandolfini said to James, who was in the audience. "LeBron, I'd like you to come to New York, if you could. If you miss Cleveland, you just have to get on the bridge and drive across New Jersey. It's pretty much the same thing."
'• Former Cav Darnell Jackson of the Bucks told The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he thought James would stay in Cleveland ... sort of.
"You never know, but he'll probably stay in Cleveland," said Jackson, who then joked, "If Mars had a team -- you never know where he's going to go. The guy in unbelievable. ... As a player, as a friend, everything. The guy is the most humble guy I ever met in my life. Definitely."
• Since everybody's weighing in on where James will land, why not ask NFL rookies?
Upper Deck did just that during a recent photo shoot in Los Angeles. James, an exclusive spokesman for Upper Deck, was not present.
Browns rookies Colt McCoy and Montario Hardesty said Cleveland, but the answers ranged from New York to New Jersey to Chicago to the Lakers and the Clippers. Tim Tebow and Jimmy Clausen didn't venture a guess.