Breaking down the latest scuttlebutt on the pursuit of the King.
UPDATED: 10:07 p.m.
The New Jersey Nets' new billionaire owner, Mikhail Prokhorov (left, with new coach Avery Johnson) will be bringing a close friend of LeBron James when the organization makes its pitch on Thursday in Akron.
(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 -- So hip-hop mogul and part-owner Jay-Z will join Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and the New Jersey contingent as the first to visit with James on Thursday.
According to Dave D'Alessandro of The (Newark) Star-Ledger, it will be a "low-key approach, with the Russian billionaire using two or three hours to illuminate what he can do for James' image and reputation on a global scale, and try to get James to specify what other player he would have the team sign."
Apparently Jay-Z has changed his mind about recruiting his good friend. In an interview with the June 24 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, parts of which were posted on ESPN New York on June 7, Jay-Z said:
"That's his decision. We're friends. We've still gotta hang out! I don't want to convince somebody to do something, then have to see him and say, 'Uh, yeah, we're 4-30...sorry.'"
Just going through the motions
Jonathan Abrams reports in the New York Times that everybody but the Bulls are wasting their time. He quotes an unnamed executive whose team is in the hunt as saying that his fellow executives think James is leaning toward joining the Bulls with Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors.
"I think it's a done deal," the executive said.
Get your Akron on
I've heard everything now. From Marc Berman in the New York Post as the Knicks head into Thursday's visit with James: "Get your Akron on!"
"I'm going to make an assumption that nobody's playing around out there," Knicks team president Donnie Walsh told Berman. "If they're going to meet with you, and you're going to meet with them, they're serious."
Coach Mike D'Antoni told Berman, "This sets the course of the franchise for the next 10 years."
Writes Berman:
"Walsh, D'Antoni and a key recruiter, Walsh assistant Allan Houston, will be in northeast Ohio. It is unclear if owner James Dolan will attend the initial presentation or if the Knicks will bring any of their bank of celebrities. Houston is considered a key figure because of his connection with the Knicks and ability to speak on the team's glorious past, according to a source. ...
"If there is going to be a 'Six in the City' (James' jersey number next season), it's going to take a lot more than star actors and celebrity-chef-prepared dinner parties."
It's about basketball
ESPN New York's Ian O'Connor likes the fact the free-agent meetings apparently will focus on basketball. Writes O'Connor:
"LeBron James just did the Knicks a favor, a big one. By making them play their most important game on the road, a game set for Thursday in Ohio with The King and his court, James stripped much of the glitz and glamour out of the Knicks' playbook.
"Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni will have to sell basketball, a program, an honest-to-God plan that has everything to do with winning titles and nothing to do with Donald Trump's money and Chris Rock's mouth.
"Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have already committed to making free-agent visits to New York, but James already knows everything he needs to know about the bright lights of Broadway. So the Knicks' roster of New York-centric entertainers and personalities -- much deeper than its roster of ballplayers -- never represented the part of the sales pitch that would make like Mariano Rivera and close the deal.
"By forcing the Knicks to hop on a plane, James is forcing them to focus on the real issues that will make or break their bid."
Deep in the heart of Texas
Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports that the Dallas Mavericks are a "dark, dark horse" in the James sweepstakes.
Checking in on Twitter
A tweet from Detroit's hairless Charlie Villanueva: "You have a better chance seeing me with a Ben Wallace afro, than LeBron going back to Cleveland."
We're all just guys
Reasons to like Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News and David Letterman. Lawrence predicts James will stay in Cleveland, while Letterman basically lobbied for him to do so.
During an interview with Jay-Z on Friday's Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman said to the hip-hop superstar and part-owner of the Nets:
"You're a guy. I'm a guy. If LeBron James wants to be a guy, he will stay where he is and not cut the heart out of that city by leaving Cleveland." Jay-Z, wary of tampering, held his tongue while Letterman talked about what the loss of James would mean to Cleveland and said that his chances of winning a title with either the Knicks or Nets weren't great.
"He's got a better chance with the Nets than with the Knicks," Letterman said. "That's like saying he has a better chance with the Cub Scouts than the Girl Scouts." Even Jay-Z cracked up at that one.