TORONTO -- LeBron James says spinning the ball in his hands before drilling a 3-pointer over Toronto Raptors forward Serge Ibaka in the Cleveland Cavaliers' Game 2 win Wednesday was merely a basketball play, not a sign of disrespect.
"It's bait," James told ESPN at Cavs shootaround ahead of Friday's Game 3. "If [Ibaka] would have reached in, I would have put it on the floor.
"It was a mental thing. Everything I do is mental."
James laughed when a reporter compared the play to a memorable sequence when Michael Jordan palmed a basketball and waved it over Brent Price's head like a carrot on a stick.