Cleveland is making their pitch to host the 2018 All Star Games and when reporters caught up with LeBron, who made some interesting comments but his face proved what he really thought.
Via ESPN:
“CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland is vying to host the 2018 NBA All-Star Game, but LeBron James said in jest Tuesday that he’s not so sure he wants the exhibition to come to town.
It would be too much for me,” James said following shootaround Tuesday in advance of the Cavaliers’ game against the Bucks. “It would be too much for me. I think it would be great for us to host it, but hopefully I’m no good in that year if we get it.LeBron James said that Cleveland hosting the NBA’s All-Star Game would be “too much for me.”
“I don’t want it. My family, friends — I don’t want it. Too much.”James was smiling and speaking in a sarcastic, exasperated tone when considering the rash of appearances and ticket requests the game would inevitably put on his plate.
The Cavaliers said later Tuesday that James was joking. The team was recently part of a bid led by the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission to host the weekend extravaganza, a league source confirmed to ESPN.com.
Northeast Ohio Media Group earlier reported Cleveland’s bid.
James has been named an All-Star the past 10 seasons, winning the MVP in 2006 and 2008. He was instrumental in the league extending its All-Star break to eight days starting this February after expressing his desire to new commissioner Adam Silver to have more rest amid the league’s 82-game season.
All-Star weekend is scheduled to be co-hosted by the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets in 2015, followed by the Toronto Raptors in 2016. Beyond that, the slate is wide open.
The last time Cleveland hosted the All-Star Game was in 1997, the year the NBA celebrated its 50th anniversary by inviting the 50 greatest players in league history up to that point — voted on by a panel of media, former players and coaches, current and former general managers and team executives — to the event.
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