DeShawn Stevenson and LeBron James: The Rest of the Story

Like so many other Washington Wizards fans who heard the comment that echoed around the NBA that DeShawn Stevenson called LeBron James "overrated,” I groaned. 

Cleveland proceeded to take DeShawn's comment to heart and made sure Washington was down 2-0 before even touching its own court.

Great. Just what we need—another Anthony Smith (of the Pittsburgh Steelers) talking it up. To my pleasant surprise, Game 3 had the Wizards send LeBron and the Cavaliers reeling with a 36-point loss. I'm thinking to myself -- It’s on!  

"There is no DeShawn-LeBron rivalry...," said LeBron James.  I'm down with that.  Let's play ball!

So I'm sitting with my brother-in-law dissecting the series in anticipation to the game later on this afternoon. And he drops the bomb on me. Apparently, LeBron hosts a party in D.C. where Jay-Z starts ripping the mic with a new song he wrote totally dissing DeShawn. 

And to add insult to injury, Damon Jones is talking smack about DeShawn too—except the content isn't just about basketball. I'm like, what the ****.

Yep—the Washington Post just broke the story and you heard it right here.

So, my bro sits me down and deconstructs the back-story like it was some sort of X-Files subplot. 

Go back two years to the NBA playoffs, and we find that bad blood is already brewing between the Wizards and Cavaliers. The famous Game 6 choke by Gilbert Arenas after LeBron stopped him and whispered in his ear junk. Gilbert ends up bricking the free throws and the Cavaliers took Game 6. 

Though Gilbert took no offense to LeBron's trash talking at the time, he might've had a change of heart if he knew that after that game, LeBron gave the choke sign to his team-mates and proceeded to call him a BLEEPING wimp in the after-game huddle. 

Spin it back up to the present and DeShawn contends that this "rivalry" stuff would never have even happened had it not been for some negative comments by LeBron on DeShawn Stevenson that were overheard by former teammate Drew Gooden (DeShawn's best friend). 

And as if to agitate it further, now Jay-Z's comes out with a new rap to put down DeShawn on behalf of his friend LeBron at a party in D.C. at the Love?? 

It was reported that one Wizard did attend that party, Caron Butler. But after being turned off and feeling disrespected, quickly left the club and called DeShawn to tell him about it.

So now I am asking myself—who does this Lebron-guy think he is? 

All of sudden, I don't feel the Cavaliers have the moral high-ground on this one (hey, I know its basketball). I'm starting to like DeShawn Stevenson. All of a sudden, the hand-in-da-face pose that DeShawn made at the game is hilarious! 

You know, LeBron gets so much positive press—I hope this comes back to haunt him for running his mouth one too many times. One thing is for sure—now that Soulja Boy and Jay-Z are involved in this little spat—this has brought a whole new perspective to this series. And, I'm so looking forward to Game 4—it’s gonna be intense.

And as Paul Harvey would say...

"And now, you know the rest of the story."