http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/10633759.htm
LeBron James has playoff court date
LeBron could face scheduling conflict if team gets to postseason
By Stephen Dyer
Beacon Journal staff writer
<!-- begin body-content --> In at least the first week of the NBA playoffs when Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James is expected to be with his team on the basketball court, he is also scheduled to be in a Summit County courtroom.
And until the Cavaliers were asked by the Akron Beacon Journal how the team intended to handle such a potential conflict, representatives of the team said they had no idea there was one.
If the team holds its position, it would bethe Cavaliers' first playoff appearance in years and James' first chance at such a competition.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Jane Bond, a stickler for keeping a schedule, has refused to postpone the April 26 trial date.
Tonight, in a nationally televised game, the Cavaliers take on the Los Angeles Lakers -- a team all too familiar with courtroom conflicts since their superstar, Kobe Bryant, began shuttling to and from his appearances in the Eagle County, Colo., rape case.
Bryant's predicament was the media circus of last year's NBA season.
Unlike Bryant, though, James won't be in Akron defending himself against criminal charges.
Starting April 26, he'll be fighting a more than $15 million lawsuit filed last year by Joseph B. Marsh, a former Portage Lakes talent promoter who made a fortune managing the career of David Copperfield.
While the suit could be settled before April, there's no telling how long it could last if it goes to trial.
The suit claims that James broke contractual obligations and promises he made to Marsh.
According to court records, the broken promises were Marsh's exclusive involvement in a LeBron James documentary and Marsh's place in an inner circle that would have allowed him to represent James on soft drink and other endorsement deals
Marsh also sued James' mother, Gloria, and father figure, Eddie Jackson, to get back the $100,000 he says he loaned them dating to before LeBron James was a junior at Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.
The money, according to court records, was to help pay for Jackson and Gloria James to land a shoe deal for Lebron James. Nike ended up signing James for nearly $100 million. The Cleveland Cavaliers' MVP would have to testify if he is called by Marsh's lawyers because it is a civil case.
That could mean James would have to answer questions under oath about gifts he or his family received during his high school years.
Team spokesman Tad Carper said the team wouldn't comment on the case. James' agent, Aaron Goodwin, also declined to comment, but said he's confident the trial date will be moved.
James' attorney Fred Nance, though, already asked the judge in October to postpone the trial until after the playoffs. Bond said the trial date will remain April 26. The playoffs start April 23, according to the NBA's Web site.
Nance, who represented the city of Cleveland in its lawsuits to keep the Cleveland Browns, said in his filing asking for the postponement that he had ``inadvertently overlooked the fact that the NBA season will not have yet concluded by April 26, 2005.''
Attorneys for Marsh couldn't be reached for comment, although Marsh has said in the past that he's suing James out of principle, not for financial gain.
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