Lebron James

SORRY, IT'S hard for me to shed any tears over the recent exile from high school basketball of LeBron James, a senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary's in Akron, Ohio, and the best scholastic basketball player in the nation. The Ohio High School Athletic Association not only had the right to strip him of his amateur status, but an obligation to do so for the thousands of other high school athletes in this country. When James accepted $845 worth of retro jerseys from a clothing store, he should have known that he was forfeiting the rest of his high school career.

High school basketball star Le-Bron James selected Aaron Goodwin as his agent. The decision comes a week before 13 NBA teams hope to land James in the draft lottery. Goodwin, who represents Milwaukee Bucks guard Gary Payton, was expected to be the choice. Still, the announcement ended a nearly 2-year courtship by sports agents trying to sign an 18-year-old client who soon will be worth millions. James, who starred at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio, will forgo college in order to enter the NBA. Goodwin first saw James play in an AAU game 2 years ago and has been part of his inner circle for some time.

He leaves basketball fans gasping in awe. But will he have the same effect on moviegoers? That's the question on Hollywood execs' minds now that NBA superstar LeBron James is about to star in his first feature film. E! News says the Miami Heat megastar will play a basketball superstar (natch) in producer Brian Grazer 's Ballers . (Could there be a more awful title?) E! says it's about "a group of guys who attend adult basketball camp," whatever that means. Tyson, movie star . . . In other sports-superstar-turned-thesp news, Maxim mag says Mike Tyson 's film career is flourishing.

TATTLE HAS always thought there was a problem with basketball players in movies - basketball players are vertical; movie screens are horizontal. Oh, yeah, and they can't act. Yet the legends of the NBA keep trying. Remember Shaquille O'Neal in "Kazaam" or Julius Erving in "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh"? We thought not. Aside from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in "Airplane," can anyone recall a good movie performance by a pro hoopster? LeBron James hopes to change that. LeBron will make his feature- film debut by playing himself in the comedy "Fantasy Basketball Camp.

DALLAS - Dwyane Wade refused to look back. No, he said, before practice Monday, he doesn't consider that the Miami Heat should have a three-games-to-none lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals. The margin is 2-1, close on the scoreboard even though it doesn't feel that way on the floor. The Heat have repeatedly built double-digit cushions against the Dallas Mavericks, and a late collapse in Game 2 is all that's keeping them from the lead that's never been blown in an NBA series.

OK, LET ME get this straight. The Phillies pull off a heart-stopper of a win in the 12th inning. Meanwhile, LeBron James gets the most disgusting ego massage I've seen in years, getting a one-hour special on ESPN to make a 10-second announcement. ("Oh, but it raised money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. " Write a check, LeBron!) And you put the egomaniac on your back cover? The one who doesn't live here, doesn't play here, who likely has few to no fans here? Putting James on your back cover is a slap in the face to the Phillies and their fans.

It's been a while since I've seen a movie in the theater. I'm thinking of catching Bad Teacher when it comes out next week, if only for the prescient sports commentary couched as comedy. The film stars Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake (united again - awkward ), and Jason Segel. Segel plays a gym teacher. Maybe you've seen the trailer, during which Segel has a heated exchange with a mouthy grade-schooler. "There is no way LeBron will ever be Jordan," Segel says.

LeBron James, considered the nation's top high school basketball player, broke his left wrist during an AAU game Saturday in Chicago and won't be able to play for 6 to 8 weeks. James, Ohio's Mr. Basketball the past 2 years who already has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, was attempting a dunk with 11:19 left in a game when he was bumped by C.J. Walleck, a player for Chicago Rising Stars. James, who will be a senior this fall at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, landed hard on his wrist.

ON THE DAY after he whipped Sonny Liston in Miami, Cassius Clay told a gaggle of white sports writers that he was joining the Nation of Islam and changing his name. They grumbled and told him he was demeaning the heavyweight championship of the world. He looked 'em in the eye and said, "I don't have to be what you want me to be!" That's a statement! It took faith, it took courage, it took boldness to say it. I don't have to be what you want me to be! And now, 46 years later, we have LeBron James in that pathetic, contrived, bullspit Nike spot, asking 29 pitiful questions, including, "Should I be what you want me to be?"

High school basketball superstar LeBron James can keep his yellow Hummer H2 and retro jerseys. But it is his gold-and-green high school uniform that must be returned. James, a senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary's High School in Akron, Ohio, is regarded as the best high school basketball player in the nation and is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft this year. Yesterday, James was ruled ineligible for the rest of the season by the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA)

LeBRON JAMES. The very name brings out the haters among us. How many athletes have a book written about them? This one's titled "The Whore of Akron: One Man's Search for the Soul of LeBron James" by Scott Raab. Tuesday night, people across the nation will tune in to root against him as his Heat team hosts the Pacers in Game 5 of their tied Eastern Conference semifinal series. James isn't the first athlete/coach/owner people haved loved to hate. The following list, in no particular order, struck us as a good first draft.

LeBron James scored 40 points, superstar sidekick Dwyane Wade added 30 - 22 in the second half - and Miami's dynamic duo took over after halftime to get the Heat even in the series with a 101-93 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Sunday in Indianapolis. With Chris Bosh injured and back in Florida, the James-Wade tandem saved the Heat, who will host Game 5 on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. James was at his MVP best, adding 18 rebounds and nine assists and refusing to let Miami's season slip away.

THIS DOES NOT sound like a winning formula. Miss 24 of 29 shots in one stretch, on the road. Watch an 11-point, second-half lead turn into a deficit. Have your entire team get outscored by two players in the fourth quarter. Somehow, it worked for the Indiana Pacers. And with one part of the Big Three gone, the Miami Heat might have a very big problem. David West scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Pacers took home-court advantage away from Miami by beating the Heat, 78-75, in Game 2 of the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday night - after LeBron James and Dwyane Wade both came up short on key opportunities in the final minute.

LeBron James accepted his third MVP award Saturday, making him the eighth player to win that many. The others - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Moses Malone - all won NBA titles. On Sunday, James and the Miami Heat resume that quest, against the Pacers. James received 85 of a possible 121 first-place votes and 1,074 points, topping Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (889 points, 24 first-place votes).   Grizzlies clawing back The Memphis Grizzlies are confident, yet realistic.

Even after nearly a quarter-century on NBA benches, Denver coach George Karl can't remember the last time he was this nervous for a big game. With a third straight victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, his Nuggets would become just the ninth team to escape a three-games-to-one series deficit. Game 7 is on Karl's 61st birthday, too. While the Nuggets are rolling, the Lakers are reeling. Denver blew out Los Angeles in Game 6 after taking a huge lead in Game 5. Ty Lawson scored 32 points, fellow spark-plug Corey Brewer added 18 and the free-wheeling, too-young-to-scare Nuggets forced a Game 7 in their first-round playoff series with a dominating 113-96 win Thursday night.

OF ALL THE positions one could picture Demetrius Town playing, point guard would be last on the list. Point guard? Wait. Isn't Town, of Ben Franklin High, a football lineman? Doesn't he go 6-2 and weigh (at least) 275 pounds? Indeed. But every school has gym classes and at Franklin basketball is the No. 1 pastime and maybe a month ago, there was Town, trying to run the show. "Know why I did that? Because I saw a documentary on LeBron James and it was showing him trying to take the ball to the basket, like he was AI," a laughing Town said, referring to Allen Iverson.

THE FINAL horn sounded, and LeBron James wrapped his arms around Carmelo Anthony in a warm embrace. Their head-to-head scoring matchup in this series was even, 139 points apiece. Just about everything else tipped Miami's way - so the Heat are moving on and the New York Knicks are going home. James had 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade both scored 19 points and the Heat ousted the shorthanded Knicks 106-94 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference first-round series Wednesday night.

LEBRON JAMES alternated fouls and fumbles, the crowd howling in delight with every one of his mistakes. Finally forced to sit for most of the third quarter, James wasn't mad, and the Miami Heat weren't worried. "We had the lead going into the fourth quarter on the road, and then we had the best player in the game coming in. So we were fine," Dwyane Wade said. And James, over the final 12 minutes, was exceptional. James scored 32 points, including eight straight to start the fourth quarter and break open the game, and the Heat took a 3-0 Eastern Conference series lead, sending the host New York Knicks to an NBA postseason-record 13th straight loss, 87-70 on Thursday night.

Forget the comparisons of LeBron James to Michael Jordan. That debate ended last season when James shrunk at the biggest moments of the Miami Heat's loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. James can never be considered greater than Jordan — not when he's is already 0-2 in the NBA Finals, while Jordan went 6-0. I can forgive the 2007 NBA Finals loss, when James, in his Finals debut, and his inferior Cleveland Cavaliers team got swept by Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs, who won their fourth title.

  LeBron James dropped to the floor in Miami, holding the back of his head and then staggering a bit when he reached his feet. A few moments later, he was fine. And a few moments after that, the Miami Heat had complete control of Game 1 against the New York Knicks. James scored 32 points after shooting 10 for 14 from the field, and the Heat rode the strength of what became a 32-2 run to easily beat the Knicks, 100-67, on Saturday, striking first in the series between clubs that waged classic annual battles from 1997 through 2000 and are meeting for the first time since.