(LeBron James committed to Kentucky… as a fan)
Last Saturday, Kentucky played Vanderbilt in Lexington, which usually isn’t news worthy. But on this particular day the Wildcats had a special guest fan sitting courtside… LeBron Raymore James.
So what exactly is the connection between James and Kentucky Basketball? Here’s the scoop…
LeBron’s good buddy and advisor, William Wesley, aka World Wide Wes, was with James at Rupp Arena on Saturday. Apparently World Wide Wes is also a good friend and advisor to John Calipari. WWW advises Calipari on the top high school talent in the country through his connections and associations with various summer camps and AAU teams. Basically, WWW is an unofficial scout for Kentucky Basketball now that Calipari is their head coach.
Some would call that cheating, but I believe Calipari is just a great networker with a better Rolodex than most college basketball coaches (remember, Calipari got a call from the President last week at well).
WWW is also tight with several other current and former NBA stars including Derrick Rose, Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson. WWW is not a household name, but in the basketball world, he’s the node that connects high school to college to NBA basketball (remember, Derrick Rose was a standout freshman at Memphis when Calipari was the coach there).
WWW is also an advisor and mentor for Kentucky’s superstar point guard, John Wall, who we’ve highlighted several times in the past. As a matter of fact we did a post about LeBron’s assessment of Wall as a player titled, “Lebron on Wall.” It’s worth noting that Wall had committed verbally to Memphis until Calipari left for Kentucky, which shows how influential WWW has been on Wall’s basketball career.
Back to LeBron.
I believe the reason the James gang was in Lexington was to evaluate Wall in person. I believe LeBron is interested in playing with Wall in the NBA and wanted to scout him in person. I won’t fuel the fire like I did with my post last November titled, “LeBron Staying in Cleveland? Ha!” but it seems odd that LeBron would be scouting a college player who the Cavs have no chance of acquiring. However, and yes I’m going there, the Net are projected to have the 1st pick in the draft and could easily snatch up LeBron and a few other highly-touted, unrestricted free agents, which would make them an instant contender. Also consider the fact that LeBron’s best friend, Jay-Z, is part owner of the Nets along with Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. I would also be remissed not to mention that Z and Prokhorov have plans to move the Nets to Brooklyn soon. Just saying.
In addition to the WWW, Calipari and John Wall connections, LeBron has created a specially designed shoe just for the Wildcats. Kentucky and Akron (LeBron’s hometown) are the only two schools to get specially designed shoes (check out the shoes in the pictures below).
And finally, to close the loop, Calipari just hired Brandon Weems, who played with LeBron at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. Weems became a graduate student manager for UK this year and remains extremely close to James.
So there you have it. LeBron’s connection to Kentucky basketball is vast and deep. He’s closer to UK than most of their biggest boosters. Like it or not, it’s gotta be good to be a Kentucky fan these days.
Tags: John Calipari, John Wall, Kentucky Basketball, LeBron James, NBA
Very informative article. Really Cool.
Where is Le Bron heading? Miami Heat with Bosh and Wade. I’m rather pissed he’s going away, but whatever good luck to him I suppose.
Lebron James once called the King has now become the black sheep of the family. Cleavland pinned all of their hopes and dreams on Lebron, who simply wants to win a championship. Looking at the Cleavland Caviler’s players, Lebron didn’t have much of a choice if he wanted to get back to the NBA finals. The Celtics dropped Cleavland in five games. The Orlando beat the Cavilers last year to go to the finals against Los Angeles. Given that there was no improvement in the teams roster, he really stood no chance of getting back to the finals any time soon. So in a word, I give Lebron a pass on his decision to leave Cleavland for Miami.
Hey the Heat doesn’t stand a chance cause Dan Gilbert said Knucklehead took the Cleveland “CURSE” to Miami…..Geeeez how can you all forget a thing like that……WRGAF!
Lebron The King is quite the sportsman and isn’t it amazing that he went after his desire to win NBA championships and took a lesser amount of cash. Great for you Lebron James. This is what you call law of attraction – think it, believe it and it will manifest.
Hey, quality write-up. Well I’ve finally processed this whole ridiculous Lebron James “Decision” situation. What a joke! First, he pretends his elbow is hurt and purposefully chokes in the playoffs to make this all easier to go down. Then he makes a complete media circus out of it all and everyone gets sick of him before it even happens. After that, this fool goes on national TV to stab his hometown in the back, all while pissing off every other big city except Miami, so that he can play on D-Wade’s team! Talk about stupid marketing! Anyhow… slick blog – I’m subscribed to your feed now so I’ll check in more often!
I hope you will keep updating your content constantly as you have one dedicated reader here.
All these old women out there talkin shit about the Heat when they have been out of the game for ages.