LeBron James’ Los Angeles home vandalized with slur
LeBron James wanted to be with his family, to hug his wife and three kids back in Ohio. Visibly shaken by an event he couldn’t control, Cleveland’s star struggled Wednesday to focus on his seventh straight NBA Finals or the Golden State Warriors.
For the game’s best player, basketball was overshadowed by racism. On the eve of the Cavaliers and Warriors meeting for the third straight year, police said James’ mansion in Los Angeles was vandalized in the morning with a racial slur spray painted onto the front gate.
Nearly a year since he sat at the same podium inside Oracle Arena and addressed Muhammad Ali’s impact as an activist following the heavyweight champion’s death, James discussed the daily challenges of being black in the U.S. “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough,” James said. “We have a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African-Americans until we feel equal in America. But my family is safe, and that’s what’s important.”
According to police, an unidentified person spray painted the N-word on the front gate of James’ $20 million home in the Brentwood neighbourhood Wednesday morning. Capt. Patricia Sandoval, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said neither James nor his family was in their secondary home at the time. The property manager told officers that it is believed the incident was captured on surveillance video, Sandoval said. Police are investigating it as an act of vandalism and a possible hate crime. Someone painted over the slur before officers arrived to investigate, Sandoval said.
James bought the house in 2015, not long after his production company signed a $15 million developmental deal with Warner Bros., an agreement that has him spending more time in Southern California. James was in Los Angeles most of last summer working with his production company. The 9,440-square-foot home is not James’ primary residence. He lives in Bath, Ohio.