LeBron in lakers warmup gear. Delonte West in bucket hat

In 2010, rumors surfaced that Delonte West was sleeping with Gloria James,¹ the mother of LeBron James. Well, those rumors have been quashed.

It only took about 13 years.

Perhaps no sports gossip in recent memory has persisted as long and as strong as the rumor that LeBron James’ mom Gloria had an affair with her son’s former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Delonte West. In part, the rumors stuck around so long because no one involved would actually speak on it, but now West himself had decided to set the record straight and claims he never had sex with Gloria James.

West, who has struggled with mental health, addiction, and homelessness in recent years, appeared in a video outside a 7-Eleven when he was asked about the longstanding rumor:

“I ain’t never ever f’d anybody’s mother.”

“He’s saying he never f’d LeBron’s mother,¹ and I’ma do it for him Slim, man put the word out.”

The rumor first emerged during the 2010 playoffs, and many thought the personal drama affected LeBron’s play when they took on the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals and he just disappeared all of a sudden.

“It’s affected me,” West, once stated while playing with the Dallas Mavericks, told the Dallas News. “Everywhere I go, first question, ‘Don’t tell me you did that.’”

“If we want to continue to grow as a human race,¹ what are we teaching our kids if we try to make humor and fun out of stuff like that?” West continued. “Number one, something like that never happened. I don’t know where they got that from.

“For a strong black woman like that, for people to try to tear her down, that’s terrible. That’s terrible in so many ways.”

Since West has been having mental health issues since his playing days have been over, neither LeBron nor Gloria have spoken out about him or reached out, which means the rumor is likely to continue on no matter what.

It should be noted that LeBron has tons of haters, so that is the sole reason it will never die down and fully go away.