LeBron James: King James Illustrates Need for Attention with Cleveland Tweet

Miami Heat forward LeBron James' Twitter account is followed by more than 2.6 million people. Don't think the superstar didn't understand that when he replied to a question with a lame attempt to win back fans in Cleveland after turning his back on them last summer.

Now, it's not the first time James has expressed his love for Cleveland. However, it's hard to take him at his word after taking his talents to South Beach. If he really appreciated Ohio fans, he wouldn't have taken the first ticket out of town to find greener pastures.

In reality, it's just James trying to garner attention during an NBA lockout that shows no signs of ending. He spent Saturday with Liverpool, an English Premier League soccer team, and has flirted with NFL rumor mongers about a possible lockout job.

That's just LeBron being LeBron.

If he's not on SportsCenter, he will be soon because he wouldn't have it any other way. An entire day on the Worldwide Leader without a LeBron segment is like an NFL season without Brett Favre—something sports fans dream of but rarely enjoy.

As much as LeBron would like to be universally loved, it just isn't going to happen. The people of Cleveland felt betrayed and that isn't going to be changed by a couple tweets.

Let's just say the building-sized “witness” sign won't be going back up anytime soon.

The one thing you can't do is blame James for trying to rebuild his personal brand. Fans around the world were unhappy with the way he left Cleveland and his image definitely took a hit. The lockout will be a good chance for him to regain some of the fans on the fence about him.

Cleveland shouldn't be his main target audience, though. The casual basketball fan should be who he goes after first. If he can convince even half of them to support him (see: buying jerseys and other merchandise), he'll be well on his way to getting his Q score back up.

And that's what all his tweets are trying to accomplish anyway.