LeBron James simply couldn’t cure James Michael Angelo’s case of the dreaded “Mondays.”
Angelo, a comedian and real estate agent, explained to USA TODAY his side of the viral video in which he balked at the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar’s attempt at filming him Monday during their ride on the New York City subway.
Angelo claims he thought a college basketball team had boarded the train and didn’t realize he was sitting next to a four-time NBA MVP. That’s probably because Angelo was too busy listening to his music and preserving what little personal space he had left after James arrived.
“I noticed a bunch of tall guys getting in the train, but I was listening to U2 and I didn’t want to be filmed,” Angelo said Monday. “To be honest with you, they got on and they completely squished me and he was really unaware of his space.”
Angelo also claims James almost elbowed him three times during their brief ride. When Angelo asked James to watch his elbow, another Cavs player responded “It’s cool.”
Armed with this knowledge, we can’t really fault Angelo for not wanting to be part of James’ social-media antics and for handling the situation with three forceful words that should become part of the sports lexicon: “can you not.”
