First there were whispers. Then he appeared.
LeBron James at John Paul Jones Arena.
Yes, that LeBron. LBJ in the house for last Saturday’s Virginia/Duke men’s basketball game.
Moné Jones heard whispers about it. “No way,” she said from her front-row student section seat surrounded by her Cavaliers teammates.
Uh, look right. King James walked in and sat on the floor near the Duke bench, with his Los Angeles Lakers teammate Rajon Rondo at his side.
“LeBron is here!” announced Dyllan Thompson, son of UVA women’s coach Tina Thompson.
Now there’s a lot of good things about having the Women’s Basketball Hall-of-Famer and WNBA legend as your head coach, but here’s one more – it just so happens she and LeBron shared an agent for a time.
“Bron Bron!” Coach T exclaimed.
“Yes, she actually said ‘Bron Bron,'” Jones said. “They’re like on nickname basis.”
Coach T went over for the initial hello and then pointed to her Cavs, giddily watching from their seats. “Anyone wanting to meet Bron . . .” Jones said, retelling the story
“… and Rondo,” interjected her teammate Erica Martinsen — was to meet with two minutes left in the game in front of the women’s basketball home locker room.
So in addition to watching some tantalizing basketball between two top five teams, the Cavaliers kept a close eye on LeBron.
“Every time something happened, we would cheer and look over to see what LeBron was doing,” Jones said. “I mean every time. It would be ‘Yay! Good shot, Kyle! What did LeBron do?’ ”
Don’t think Duke 81, Virginia 71 would spoil this day.
LeBron made good on his word and it wasn’t a cursory few minutes by any means.
LeBron and Erica
“So when we went over, he was shaking all of my teammates’ hands and I was the last one,” Martinsen said. “I was waiting for my chance, and I put my arm out and realized he was shaking another teammate’s hand. So I pulled it back. I kept doing that. I did it like five times. I was awkward, and he said, ‘Don’t worry. I”ll get to you!’ Then he held my hand for like six straight seconds, and he was looking me in the eyes. I was smiling and laughing.
“We had a moment.”
Admittedly, Martinsen used to prefer the Warriors. Let’s just say she’s changed affiliations.
“I didn’t like LeBron from afar,” she said “Now that I met him and I can say that we’re friends, I really like super respect him. He’s a great guy.”
Jones was also impressed. “He was super down-to-earth,” she said. “You hear about that all the time. People say, ‘LeBron is super down-to-earth. He’s cool. He’s a really good guy.’ But you never know until you have a chance to meet somebody like that. He gave us a firm handshake. It wasn’t a wimpy one. It was a firm handshake. Looked all of us in the eye to say, ‘Hello. How are you?’ He’s a really good guy. He was really genuine about it.”
Kudos to Rondo, too. Amandine Toi chatted him up and he asked her to follow his Insta account.
“He asked about her injuries,” Martinsen said. “They’re buddies now, too.”
It was a thrill for Shakyna Payne, a forever fan of LeBron’s.
“I’ve always been a LeBron fan,” she said. “Meeting him honestly meant a lot to me because ever since I was young, I’ve watched him play. Like Erica says, there’s those haters out there who hate him because he’s LeBron James. But I’ve always been a LeBron fan, so meeting him meant the world.”
“I love him,” Martinsen gushed.
She hoped he’d come to their game the next day (in that one, UVA scored the victory over Duke), but he and Rondo had to be in Phllly — something about the Lakers and 76ers. . . .
Even so, nothing could spoil the happy meeting between a former Cavalier and a bunch of current Cavaliers.