The LeBron James free agency spectacle has been about many things — money, of course; television ratings; the cutthroat politics of professional sports, and the quest for greatness, both on the part of King James and the six teams that courted him.
But despite all those threads, the protracted moment was one refreshingly devoid of any race issues. Until now, that is.
Leave it to the Rev. Jesse Jackson to insert race — and himself — into the James affair, a last wheezing gasp at relevance at the end of a career marked by controversy, inflammatory rhetoric, and needless instigation.
Jackson is accusing Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert of treating LeBron like "a runaway slave" after Gilbert fired off a ranting letter that criticized James for his handling of the free-agency process. In the ill-advised missive, Gilbert calls James "narcissistic" while telling Cavaliers fans, "You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal."
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