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.

This is a good read. It certainly puts Terez Owens’ report and Calvin Murphy’s “confirmation” into some perspective.

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?

Per Gather.com…

During an interview Thursday with local ESPN Houston affiliate 97.5 FM radio station, retired Houston Rockets guard Calvin Murphy claimed that according to his sources inside the NBA, the rumored affair between LeBron James’ mother Gloria and Cavaliers teammate Delonte West is ”absolutely true.”

In his interview with the hosts of “The Drive,” when asked what he thought of the rumor, Murphy was quoted as saying, “It ain’t no rumor. Unfortunately, my sources in the NBA tell me that it’s absolutely true. My sources, and they’re legit, tell me the only people that didn’t know it was happening was LeBron and me.”

Listen to the interview here.

He went on to predict that LeBron will sign with another team this summer.

The rumor goes that LeBron learned about the news before Game 4, which could explain his suspect performance in that game. Let’s not overlook the fact that Delonte West went 0-7 for three points in that same game.

I don’t know what’s going to happen this summer, but I’d bet the farm that LeBron and Delonte aren’t on the same team next season.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

TMZ Sports acquired a copy of an email sent to Terez Owens that blasts the site for starting the Delonte West/Gloria James rumor:

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.