She’s a strong black woman” — Delonte West on how he slept with LeBron James’ mom Again

Around 2010, a rumor went around the NBA that Delonte West had sexual relations with Gloria James, LeBron James’ mother. It was a rumor that circulated like crazy among fans, but in 2012, West finally dispelled such gossip.

A malicious rumor
“It’s affected me,” West said in 2012, per Dallas News, via Miami New Times. “Everywhere I go, first question, ‘Don’t tell me you did that.'”

“If we want to continue to grow as a human race, what are we teaching our kids if we try to make humor and fun out of stuff like that?” West continued. “Number one, something like that never happened. I don’t know where they got that from.”

It’s unclear where the rumor came from. People claim that James, supposing the incident did happen, was so bothered by it that he performed poorly in the playoffs against the Boston Celtics in 2010.

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James averaged 26.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.6 assists in the 2010 Eastern Conference Semis against the Celtics. This is not a definition of a poor performance by James, but people still rode the West-Gloria James rumor.

Perhaps the rumor spread wildly since, after James’ playoff defeat in 2010, later in the summer, he announced his decision to go to the Miami Heat. As such, his decision to move to another team was both a professional and personal one.

Gloria James had LeBron when she was just 16. As a single mother, she moved around Akron a lot to find jobs to be able to raise LeBron right. Gloria felt that their nomadic life wasn’t the right environment for LeBron, and so she sent him to live with Frank Walker, a football coach who introduced LeBron to basketball when he was nine years old.

“For a strong black woman like that, for people to try to tear her down, that’s terrible. That’s terrible in so many ways,” West added.

As they say, the rest is history. James wasn’t just a gifted athlete; he had a photographic memory as well, and it enabled him to move up the basketball ladder immediately from one of the best high school prospects to one of the greatest basketball players in history.