Boston Globe writer Gary Washburn tweets that Delonte West denied those salacious LeBron James rumors from earlier in the summer:

Delonte west denies lebron rumors “I come from an era where you dont say nothing bad about someones parent. So not at all.”

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Crawl out from under your rock, wipe the six months of sleep from your eyes and read this. Caught up? Great.

Back to West…this wasn’t a denial, at least the way it was written.

But in a longer Washburn story about West at Boston.com, the picture becomes clearer:

But then a reporter from a local radio station asked West the question that basketball fans, entertainment buffs, gossip columnists, and the entire Northeast Ohio region had been wondering about since the Cavaliers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs last May.

Did West have an intimate relationship with Gloria James, the mother of two-time Most Valuable Player and former teammate LeBron James?

Before a frantic team official could intervene, undoubtedly fearing West might react with four-letter words, or perhaps clam up altogether, as he did last season, West took a deep breath, stared the reporter in the eye, and addressed whether the rumors were true.

“Not at all,’’ he said. “I come from an era where you don’t say nothing bad about someone’s parent, so not at all.’’

Washburn left that first “not at all” out of his tweet, which made it seem that West was dodging the question.

Damn Twitter!

But back to West, again…why add the bit about “I come from an era…”? By saying that he doesn’t want to say anything bad about LeBron’s mom it would seem to confirm that he indeed has something bad to say, but just doesn’t want to say it.

And what ‘era’ is West talking about? He’s 27 years old, so is he talking about the ’80s or the ’90s? It’s not like he’s a WW2 vet or something.

One thing’s for sure — those Heat/Celtics games are going to be interesting.

The Boston Herald has the details of West’s pending return to Beantown.

From a pure basketball standpoint, West is a great player to get for the league minimum, but the reason that his market value is so low is because he’s a little crazy and he may or may not have caused the Cavs’ playoff implosion earlier this summer. The signing would definitely add a little extra umph to a potential Heat/Celtics playoff series.

Nevertheless, he’ll bring shooting, defense and versatility off the C’s bench.

Friday, May 14, 1:30 p.m. Sports gossip site Terez Owens runs this item:

It is, verbatim, taken from the chain emails circulating; though by calling it “exclusive” and claiming it comes from “[his] source in Cleveland,” it gains legitimacy in the eyes of those who don’t understand how this thing works, or just want to believe it.

And…

Wednesday, May 19 Calvin Murphy, who could not dig up a character witness for his own trial for allegedly molesting 5 of his 14 children, goes on a sports talk radio show. He says that the Delonte West/Gloria James story is “absolutely true,” that he’s got multiple sources, and that West wasn’t the only person intimately involved with James’s mother.

Terez Owens cites this as confirmation.

We’ll never know for sure what did or didn’t happen, but it sure seems like this report was false from the start. Deadspin certainly thinks so.

The perplexing thing is Murphy’s confirmation. Why would he say what he said if he had any doubts? Of course, we’re talking about a guy who was accused of molesting five of his children. He was acquitted, but still.

Where does this story/rumor go from here? Will we ever hear from LeBron or Delonte on the subject? Should they even bother to respond?

In the email, Frederick Nance — attorney for LeBron and Gloria — says the report is “categorically false and per se defamatory.” Nance adds, “No thinking person could possibly believe such rubbish.”

The guys at terezowens tell us, “We think it’s a little fishy that they waited almost 4 days to fire this off.” They say they stand by their source, and they’re consulting with their lawyers. The story is still up on their site … for now.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was too crazy to be true. I guess we’ll have to see if all of the facts come out.

Courtney Lee and Chris Douglas-Roberts fighting to be Nets’ starting shooting guard. Courtney Lee is a player. He can shoot, score and defend, and he’s still troubled by Orlando’s decision to trade him away. That layup he missed in the Finals was no gimme. By the time he was in position to release the ball, his entire torso was behind the backboard. It’s a shame that’s what people remember of Lee from last season. This battle may go deeper into camp, but Lee has more talent and should be starting for the Nets this season.

Replacement refs aren’t up to snuff. Last night in the Rockets-Celtics game, 75 fouls were called and 102 free throws were shot. This is astounding. NBA refs get a bad rap. Basketball is a tough game to officiate because there is so much contact on any given possession. Refs have quite a bit of leeway, which can lead to inconsistency from game to game and from crew to crew.

HC Don Nelson plans to use Stephen Curry as a starter…at times. He says it’s going to be a matchup thing because Curry is so good. So look for Curry to start when the opponent also has a couple of smallish guards in the starting lineup. But wouldn’t a Monta Ellis/Stephen Curry backcourt create huge matchup problems on the other end of the court? I think most off guards would have a tough time getting back in transition to cover Curry on the wing.

When will the Milwaukee Bucks get a new arena? I grew up outside of Milwaukee and remember when the Bradley Center was state of the art. Needless to say, that was a while ago. The Bucks are in a tough spot because with the recession, they’re going to have a tough time making money this season unless the team is playoff-caliber. Given the environment, neither the city nor the franchise are going to want to pay for an arena, so there’s a real chance that the Bucks’ owner — Senator Herb Kohl — sells the team in the next few years. It would be a shame, because Bucks fans are great when the team is good (or at least mediocre).

Delonte West leaves the team…again. Other than maybe the Lakers, the Cavs are probably the best equipped to handle this kind of drama during training camp. With the whole LeBron/Shaq honeymoon, eyes are elsewhere, but West has the potential to become a distraction as the season wears on. He’s too good to cut loose, but not so good that he deserves special treatment. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Cavs handle West if he continues to miss time.

Details at ESPN.