Vogue Cover Stirs Up Race Controversy

The cover may be fraught with subtexts, but it is what it is

(NEWSER) - Last week's Vogue cover had "a lot of people, smart and dumb, losing their minds," writes Wesley Morris in Slate. Sure, Annie Leibovitz's shot may pander to the "ugliest racist tropes: black male as ape," with LeBron James as King Kong and Gisele Bundchen as the silky-gowned Fay Wray. (She even has her very own "dashing white adventurer," boyfriend Tom Brady.) But that subtext is a stretch. More»

He was probably joking though... right?

(NEWSER) - With the lockout officially cutting into the NBA season , would LeBron James consider suiting up for the NFL? Probably not, but the King is definitely stoking speculation. Last week his highness donned his pads and practiced with the Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary high school team, then tweeted that it “felt great being back on the field. Should I?” Last night he took it a step further, asking ESPN NFL guru John Clayton via Twitter when the deadline to sign free agents was. More»

Miami's loss shatters James' reputation

(NEWSER) - Sports columns everywhere are thick with schadenfreude today after LeBron James yet again vanished during the fourth quarter to hand Dallas the NBA title . Here’s what people are saying:

• LeBron is still royalty, but he’s not a king—he’s “an emperor with no clothes,” writes Mark Heisler of the LA Times . “James came out firing and making … then faded into the mists.” The Mavericks have exposed him, and everyone will keep him out of the lane from now on.

Meanwhile Dan Gilbert rejoices over Mavericks win

(NEWSER) - LeBron James gave his detractors a whole new reason to hate him in his post-game press conference last night, essentially telling them that he’d rather have his life than theirs. “At the end of the day, all the people that was rooting on me to fail … they gotta wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today,” he said. “They got the same personal problems that they had today. And I’m gonna continue to live the way I wanna live.” More»

Dirk Nowitzki takes MVP honors for Dallas

(AP) - For Dirk Nowitzki, the resume is complete. He's an NBA champion. For LeBron James, the agonizing wait continues for at least one more year. Avenging what happened five years ago in perfect turnabout style, the Dallas Mavericks won their first NBA title by winning Game 6 of these finals in Miami 105-95 tonight—celebrating on the Heat's home floor, just as Dwyane Wade and his team did to them in the 2006 title series. The Mavericks won four of the series' last five games, a turnabout that could not have been sweeter. More»