On Tuesday morning a local gym in Manhattan (Life Time Athletic at Sky) was given quite the thrill when the usual rec-leaguers who occupy the basketball court got their asses booted in favor of some NBA players; namely: Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, J.R. Smith, Enes Kanter, Dahntay Jones, and LeBron James. This is definitely not something you'd expect to see when going to get in a workout following work.
Fortunately, the action was captured and disseminated by Melo's social media feed. Here's a story in four parts:
Plus a few bonus clips as a thank you for those of you who've scrolled down this far (you know who you are!):
According to ESPN, the game went down after LeBron took a private jet from Akron to participate (I guess it still might have gone on had he not showed up, but still). He played for about two hours, then flew back for "his annual LeBron James Family Foundation function at Cedar Point amusement park." Yeesh. As for Durant, he made the trip from Washington D.C., which is closer than Akron, but still seems like a hike for a pickup game. A source also told ESPN that LeBron plans to take part in future pickup contests in Los Angeles in the "near future."
I smell a viral marketing opportunity here.
