From Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer:
According to a source close to LeBron James, the current NBA Most Valuable Player did not tell free agent Trevor Ariza that he was for sure going to be with the Cavaliers past 2010.
Earlier today ESPN.com reported James told Ariza “I’ll be there. Of course, I’ll be there” as part of the Cavs’ recruiting pitch to land the coveted 6-foot-8 swingman. The report said Ariza deemed the statement to be a ploy to convince him to drop a commitment to sign with the Houston Rockets. The source close to James indicated it wasn’t even a ploy.
ESPN also reported that Cavs general manager Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown met with Ariza on Sunday in Los Angeles, after he’d committed to go to the Rockets last week, in an effort to get him to change his mind. The Plain Dealer previously reported Ferry and Brown were in L.A. on a recruiting mission that day.
James could not be reached for comment — probably because he’s slated to attend the Allen & Company media-industry conference. The event starts tonight. According to the Los Angeles Times, the invitation-only “media mogulfest” is expected to draw Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bewkes, Sumner Redstone, Sergey Brin, and Mark Zuckerberg, among others. NBA Commisioner David Stern and New York Knicks owner James Dolan are expected to attend as well. (H/T: BDL)
From the Times:
In between rafting, knitting, yoga, chess and bridge (Buffett and Gates are big bridge players), big deals are known to have been hatched during the conference’s 26-year history. The most famous marriage with roots in Sun Valley was Walt Disney Co.’s deal to buy Capital Cities/ABC Inc. in 1995, which came out of a random meeting in the parking lot of then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, CapCities board member Buffett and the company’s CEO, Tom Murphy.
The gathering of the uberclass and the media who stalk it overwhelms Sun Valley and the neighboring town of Ketchum. If you are looking to rent a bike there this week, forget it; Allen & Co. has reserved them all. Tiny Friedman Memorial Airport will be overrun with private corporate jets and the streets will be filled with Lincoln Town Cars. As it happens, the name of the main street to the Sun Valley Inn, a resort that for the week houses a good chunk of the Forbes list of richest Americans, is Dollar Road.
Like “Fight Club,” the first rule of the Allen & Co. conference is that you don’t talk about the Allen & Co. conference. The event is closed to the press, and attendees are discouraged from acknowledging whether they’re attending.
UPDATE: Windhorst tweets that James is attending the conference with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.
