INDEPENDENCE: LeBron James fired back at New York Knicks President Phil Jackson on Tuesday, saying he lost all respect for the coaching legend after Jackson referred to James and his friends as a “posse.”
“I had nothing but respect for him as a coach, for what he was able to do obviously at the helm of my favorite player of all-time in MJ [Michael Jordan] and also growing up watching the Lakers,” James said. “But I’ve got nothing for him.”
In a wide-ranging Q&A with ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, Jackson said James likes preferential treatment and defended Miami Heat President Pat Riley. He called James’ departure from Miami “a slap in the face” and recalled an incident when James wanted to stay over in Cleveland during a road trip, placing coach Erik Spoelstra in a tough spot.
“You can’t hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland,” Jackson said.
Of all the jabs, the word “posse” stung James the most.
“We see the success that we have, but then there is always someone that lets you know how far we still have to go as African-Americans,” James said. “I don’t believe that Phil Jackson would have used that term if he was doing business with someone else and working with another team or if he was working with anybody in sports that was owning a team that wasn’t African-American and had a group of guys around them that didn’t agree with what they did. I don’t think he would have called them a posse. But it just shows how far we have to go. But it won’t stop us from doing what we need to do as a group.”
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue played under Jackson in Los Angeles, but he wanted no part of the brewing feud between his star player and his former coach.
“That’s not my focus,” Lue said. “My focus is on getting this team better. That’s all I’m focused on.”
James has been in business with good friends Maverick Carter and Rich Paul for more than a decade. Paul now serves as James’ agent and the founder of Klutch Sports Group. Carter is based in Los Angeles and directs James’ Hollywood ventures. Randy Mims, the fourth partner in James’ LRMR marketing firm, holds a position with the Cavs.
“I’ve tried to put my guys in position to where they can walk in a meeting and go places and they don’t need me, because they got to a point where they’ve done their homework, they’ve studied on what they want to do and they can hold a meeting without me because of the respect that they have and the knowledge they have,” James said. “That’s just 12 years of hard work and dedication that we put to each other. I know Phil’s in a position of power in our sport, but to criticize me and my guys over that is nonsense.”
James has long been an outspoken activist over social issues in the African-American community. He denounced President-elect Donald Trump prior to the election for his views on women and minorities.
“We all know that race is a huge thing in our country, in our world,” James said. “It’s easy to down someone. I was a kid, I rode on buses before and was in classrooms before, and I get the jokes that go on. But it’s so easy to do that. The hard part is how can you pull someone to the side and help them out and help better their day and tell them ways that they can become better, because it’s only for the greater of everybody. So for me, being who I’ve been in my career so far, I’ve done nothing but, if anybody needed advice about the game or wanted to talk about the game, I’ve been nothing but open. But it seems like when my name is involved with other people that’s helped build the game, it’s like, ‘How can we criticize what he does on and off the floor?’ instead of trying to help me.”
The Cavs face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 7. Stay tuned.
“If he says it out to the media,” James said of Jackson, “you can only imagine what he says when the camera is not on him. Just got a lot more work to do.”
Dribbles
J.R. Smith missed his second game with a sore right ankle. Lue is hopeful Smith can return Wednesday at Indiana. … Richard Jefferson’s basket in the first half was the 5,000th field goal of his career.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.