Every fan of the Miami Heat knows that LeBron James left as a free agent in the summer of 2014 on less-than-perfect terms with team president Pat Riley.
Thanks to a recent report, however, fans are now getting a little insight into just how disengaged James was following his fourth and final season in South Florida.
On Monday’s episode of ESPN’s “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith said that James was playing video games during his free-agency meeting with Riley.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”HN-300×250-Image”]
“I’ll tell you a story that resonates far deeper than that, Jay [Williams],” Smith said. “Not only did Pat Riley come out to Vegas, but literally, while Pat Riley was there to come and talk to LeBron in Vegas, LeBron was playing some Nintendo game, or PlayStation, or whatever the hell that he was playing and it was considered so disrespectful that Alonzo Mourning, from what I was told, had to step in the fray and say, ‘Yo, you are not going to disrespect this man like that.’ That’s how bad it was.”
It’s long been known that James’ departure from Miami was not a happy one, but this small anecdote goes to show just how unfixable the rift between James and the Heat front office was.
Now in Los Angeles, James is having newfound trouble with his team’s front office as the Los Angeles Lakers continue to crumble all around James.
James has been known to leave something of a mess whenever he leaves one team for another. This time, it appears the mess followed him.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”HN-300×250-TextnImage”]
