The Los Angeles home of NBA star LeBron James has been sprayed with racist graffiti, according to news reports Wednesday, the eve of the first game of the NBA championship.
The graffiti, discovered Wednesday morning on the front gate of James' multimillion-dollar home in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood, was a racial epithet, according to the Los Angeles Times, which quoted a police officer as saying it had already been painted over.
James, star of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is in California this week for the first and second games of the best-of-seven playoff series against the Golden State Warriors. The first game is Thursday. James, 32, was not home when the graffiti was discovered.
The police officer, Norma Eisenman, told the Times that detectives were investigating.
Neither the team nor James posted a reaction to the incident on Twitter.
Police said they would have to determine the motive for the vandalism before classifying it as a potential hate crime, according to the newspaper.
The 2.03-metre-tall forward is one of the most popular players in the NBA. The Cavaliers will be defending the title, which the team won last year over the Warriers in seven games.
