LeBron James' New House Has Barbershop, Casino, Bowling Alley...but No Basketball Court?

Today the Bob Dyer of the Akron-Beacon Journal got his "King James builds a castle of a home" piece smack dab on the front page of my local paper.

And it's no wonder: Even though us Ohioans are used to LeBron James -- some see him about town, others have pics crowding their bureaus of LeBron's days playing for St. Vincent-St. Mary -- or "St. V" as they call it around these parts -- we still are hungry for all things LeBron James.

LeBron James' new house is an object of fascination.

It first started in 2003, as Dyer notes, when LeBron James bought a home in beautiful Bath Township for $2.1 million. I remember the day I sat in a conference room at the Akron-Beacon Journal downtown as a woman announced that LeBron was having that house razed to the ground, saying she knew where it was located.

Within seconds, a reporter quietly tipped out of the room to follow up on her tip, and all of us reader panel participants chuckled.

A home befitting a king...
Indeed LeBron James' new home sounds like royalty. At 35,440 square feet, Dyer notes that it's only 10,000 square feet smaller than our local Best Buy. That really gives you some perspective.

Yet it doesn't look gaudy, or as selfish as some monstrosity that LeBron could've built from his balling bucks. Funny, LeBron James' home plans have yet to list a basketball court, but a nice, sleek or Boston Garden-type parquet floor must be in the works. Where else would King James practice when away from the Quicken Loans Arena -- better known as The Q.

It's going to have a barbershop on the lower floor right next to the bowling alley. A garage large enough to fit six cars -- I wonder if that includes the silver Hummer LeBron first received that had me rubber-necking at every HumVee that pranced by me? No, I think he got rid of that one...

LeBron's head
Maybe the most self-aggrandizing feature of Lebron's new manse will be the bas-relief (I had to look it up: A sculpture in which the figures project slightly from the background) limestone sculpture of James' head on an outer wall.