So if you haven't heard yet, this woman, Vaneisha Robinson, found this LeBron James pendant at a lawn sale that was going for $5. She bought it thinking it was one of those hokey types of fake jewlery, but apparently its full of white gold and diamonds and broken dreams or something.
So she listed it on EBay, the thing was worth 10k appraiser's value, and she thought she was in for a nice little pay day. Somehow, after all this LeBron James mess, someone is Ohio will still get to smile, and its not even sarcastically. Nice little feel good story from a terrible situation, right?
Enter, Maverick Carter.
So here is a direct link to the story (H/T forum user Mike-Dub) about how Maverick Carter's crew jacked the feel good right out of Vaneisha Robinson. I don't want to get into too many details here, and I don't want to rant on how meaningless this 10k pendant is in the grand scheme of things, but here is the meat of the tale:On Wednesday, Robinson said she got a phone call that turned her dream into a nightmare. Robinson said it was Katherine L. Powers, the mother of Maverick O. Carter. Carter is the CEO of LeBron James' marketing company, LRMR.
"[Powers] said that LeBron James was at her house and they wanted me to come over there. They were going to make me an offer that I couldn't refuse," Robinson said.
It turned out the one-of-a-kind pendant belongs to Carter, who claims it was stolen. Robinson said she and her mother went to the Wadsworth house Carter shares with his mother, believing James was going to buy the pendant and give it back to Carter.
"When I got there, LeBron James was not there. It was about eight or nine other people there," Robinson said. "They pretty much accused me, they threatened me and they used their authority to they (sic) best ability to get the pendant in their possession."
Robinson said she and her mother drove to Carter's house in the 500 block of Caledonia Drive in her mother's pickup truck.
"They blocked her truck in the driveway. They told us that we weren't going anywhere until they got that pendant. I was scared for my life," she said.
Okay, that is pretty messed up at first glance. Now, I don't want to go off on how ridiculous this particular situation is, because frankly I hope other people will do that in the coming days. Maybe Katie Couric can interview Ms. Robinson or she can box Danny Bonaduce or something for charity. I don't know. Not the point.
The point is that because of this whole LeBron scam 'decision' thing, stories involving Maverick Carter are somehow relevant. We know who this guy is. Think about that for a second; we know who Maverick Carter IS.
And its not like we know who Maverick Carter is like we know who Stedman Graham is, or who Jake Pavelka is, or who Sully Sullenberger is. I mean yes, we know who they are, but they're kind of in the pop culture periphery, its not like (normal) people talk about them often, or really care what they do.
But, we know who Maverick Carter is.
Is he LeBron's agent? No. Do most of us even know who LeBron's agent is? Maybe if you're a hardcore basketball nerd, but probably not (its Leon Rose...don't act like you just knew that because I put his name there). A buddy of mine, a guy who is primarily a Yankees/Bills fan, who hasn't cared about basketball since Shaq was good, he called me to give me his two cents on LeBron James and went so far as to say "It looks like this Maverick Carter guy has a lot to do with where he goes".
Sure, Donnie Walsh or Danny Ferry should know who Maverick Carter is, that's their business. They're in the business of knowing everything about every NBA player in the league...that's what they get (or got in Danny Ferry's case) paid to do.
But us? Even the most hardcore of basketball fans? Why in the name of Bill Russell's rings should we know who Maverick Carter is? Why should we care?
Does he play basketball? No. Does he represent any other players' business interests? Yes, but just Johnny Flynn, and that guy is in the middle of a point guard battle with Luke Ridnour in freaking Minnesota, so great job there.
No, Maverick Carter is just the guy who helps LeBron decide what to do with his truckloads of money. He's just some guy, who apparently lives with his mom (and uses her as a decoy to lure young women to his house so he can take their stuff....allegedly), and knows LeBron James really well.
I now know who Maverick Carter is. I can't un-know that. I'm writing a story about how much I hate that fact at 3am on a Thursday. Thank you, LeBron James, you stinking pile of Mee Krob.