But as they are GQ, they talk about the clothes stuff, too. As a blogger, I am in no position to comment on fashion side of things. I mean, I just wear underwear in my mom’s basement and all. So here is a video on the clothing side of things.

Moehringer thinks because playing with Wade and Bosh in a fun city is a way to replicate James’ high school experience, which he still says is some of the best times of his life. Moehringer gets into this more in a companion interview done at TrueHoop.

I agree with Buzz [Bissinger, who wrote James’ last authorized book] that’s it’s dangerous to do pop psychologizing, but it seems to me that [James] has one formula for success in his life and that comes out of his high school experience…

He thrives, he’s happiest, he does his best when he is surrounded by friends. He just didn’t feel like that was happening in Cleveland. It seems pretty clear that Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh aren’t just the best talent he can surround himself with, but they’re a combination of talent and friends. He’s looking for camaraderie. That’s the formula that has worked for him — and the only one that has worked for him.

Moehringer paints a complex portrait (which is not fully available online, you need to buy the magazine). He talks about a man somewhat isolated from reality — a man surrounded by a layer of family, followed by a layer of friends, followed by a layer of Nike people. Moehringer said that in the room in Connecticut, where LeBron was to televise his decision, everyone had a sense of foreboding and that this was a bad idea — everyone except LeBron and his people. They didn’t get it.

How isolated did he seem from reality at times? The opening of the article says it all:

He can imagine, he says, playing for Cleveland again one day.

Did I hear him right? Cleveland?

“If there was an opportunity for me to return,” he says, “and those fans welcome me back, that’d be a great story.”

Cleveland…Ohio? Where fans at this very moment are burning his jerseys? Where fans are selling toilet paper made from his jerseys?

This is a fantastic bit of writing, and like all great writing it ads nuance and shades of gray to what has been painted in black-and-white terms so many places. LeBron does not come off as a bad person or a stooge, he comes off as someone who thought it through and made his decision. Someone very comfortable with that decision.

He says that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s post-decision rant only reinforced the feeling he made the right decision, as James himself said in GQ:

“I don’t think he ever cared about LeBron. My mother always told me: ‘You will see the light of people when they hit adversity. You’ll get a good sense of their character.’ Me and my family have seen the character of that man.” He went on to say that Gilbert’s post-Decision screed “made me feel more comfortable that I made the right decision.”

Moehringer doesn’t let we sports fans off the hook. We are to blame in part for this. Complain about ESPN’s “The Decision” all you want, large numbers tuned in to watch. As he gets into during his TrueHoop interview, Moehringer notes we complain about athletes acting narcissistically, then we tune in to watch them in big numbers. We are fascinated. We do it with Brett Favre. We do it with Tiger.

And when the ratings numbers start up again on Oct. 26, you can bet we will see record numbers tune in to watch LeBron again.

Yesterday Charles Barkley called LeBron James a punk for daring to do what Barkley never did and team up with other superstars to get a ring. Because I guess never reaching your goal but falling short by yourself is noble. Whatever.

“He’s got to win multiple championships to make that situation work, at least two,” the Hall of Famer and TNT analyst said in an interview with FanHouse on Thursday night at the Basketball Hall of Fame about James, who bolted Cleveland last month as a free agent to force a sign-and-trade to the Heat. “(If not), his legacy is going to take a serious hit.”

He also has to cure cancer and reverse the trade deficit between the United States and China, or it’s a failure.

Does Barkley feel at all bad about using the word “punk?”

“I should have never used that word,” said Barkley, sounding at first as if was an apology. “It was bull (bleep). Bull (bleep) is a better word.”

I really want a Barkley/LeBron sit down interview now. Make it happen, TNT.

Don’t think for one min that I haven’t been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!

That, predictably, led to more backlash on twitter, where plenty of people laughed at the immaturity of the comment, some mocked him for trying to be an Internet bully, while others asking if he had taken “mental notes” on his shortcomings with the Cavaliers. The reaction was far more negative than positive afterward online.

ESPN’s Arash Markazi, in his pulled piece on hanging with LeBron for a night that the network pulled, said that LeBron seemed more like a child wrapped in a man’s body. The more we hear from him, the more that sounds like the truth. LeBron is not malicious or mean spirited, just immature. Not someone who takes into consideration the reaction to what he does or says, but rather just does it.

That twitter announcement just seems to be the latest step along those lines.

Do not confuse that with being a Cleveland man. He played for the Cavaliers, but don’t go thinking Akron and Cleveland are one in the same. Well, Clevelanders may consider Akron a suburb but the feeling is not mutual. The fine folks of Akron see themselves as living in their own city, separate and distinct from Cleveland.

Which is what Maverick Carter — LeBron James’ right hand and the CEO LRMR, the marketing firm that handles LeBron — said about yesterday’s full-page ad in the Akron Beacon Journal.