Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The real story on LeBron asking NC swimmer to dinner


Lauren Perdue, in an image provided by the University of Virginia.

Lauren Perdue, who is from Greenville, N.C., set herself up for an Olympic medal Wednesday morning by swimming the first leg of the 4x200 women's freestyle relay. The U.S. won the heat and Perdue will win whatever medal the U.S. gets -- it's expected to be a gold -- no matter whether she is picked for tonight's relay or not.

The biggest news Perdue has made at the Olympics, though, was when she sent out a tweet one night saying LeBron James had asked her to dinner and a picture of the two of them posed together.

I asked Perdue about it Wednesday. "The basketball players were nice enough to kind of come out and meet the swimmers and take pictures," Perdue said, speaking of a recent evening when the basketball players toured the Olympic Village (they aren't staying there -- the swimmers are).

LeBron did take a liking to Perdue, though, who is a star swimmer at the University of Virginia. So did he really ask her to dinner?

"He did," Perdue said. "He was kind of joking but he was basically like, 'Would you like to come eat with me at the dining hall?' And I said, 'Um, I'm sorry, I have a curfew. So I turned that one down, yeah."

One more note: Perdue said LeBron was "gracious" and certainly didn't imply that he was asking her to anything other than a meal at the Olympic Village dining hall.

Also on Wednesday, SwimMAC Carolina's Micah Lawrence advanced to tonight's semifinals in the 200 breaststroke with an impressive swim. U.S. teammate Rebecca Soni, the gold-medal favorite, was first in the prelims. Lawrence was fourth. The top 16 advanced to tonight's semis. Lawrence said she was "very nervous" before her first Olympic swimming experience, but she handled it well. She is definitely in contention for a medal.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't he engaged to the mother of his two young children?

Anonymous said...

Riveting.

Anonymous said...

So LeBron got dissed? Beautiful.

Coming soon to a microphone near you: LeBron gives his postgame speech from after game 7 of the 2011 Finals again, speaking of Lauren Perdue instead of the hoops fans who like to see him lose.

Anonymous said...

Good for her.

Erika Fernandez said...

She is talking about LeBron because she wants to become famous. That's it!

Anonymous said...

is this a story? no!!!

Anonymous said...

^^^ Agreed! hahah

Anonymous said...

Guess that doesn't say much for his recent engagement to the mother of his children.

aomare said...

100% agree with Erika Fernandez. If you want to understand why celebrities don't mix with regular-joes, here's exactly why, people use them. A bratty college student taking advantage of one athlete's request to share a meal in the Olympic DINING HALL, not a romantic date.
Additionally, his fiance and mother of his two boys is IN London with him.
Haters, keep it moving.

Anonymous said...

I thought LeBron was engaged to his x2 BabyMomma?

Anonymous said...

From one athlete to another. Did not seem anything more than that. I hope he keeps winning. He is one of the best basketball players on our entire planet.

Anonymous said...

yeah Erika, and because Lebron asked her out. You would talk about it to. Its not like she made up the meeting, it happened. she tweeted about it. How is that wanting to be famous. The girl is an olympian for crying out loud. She IS famous.

Anonymous said...

I am not an NBA fan or Lebron fan AT ALL, but it is cool that he showed interest in, let's face it, a lesser known athlete on Team USA. Sounds like a good natured meeting between the two, don't think either was trying to GET something from the other. Be proud of our athletes people. I think it is good to see the millionaire bb players act like humans.

Anonymous said...

The comments show that readers in NC are mainly Republican and just read the parts they want to or add to things that are reported. lol, asking her to join him for dinner in the Olympic village dining hall is not like a hot date, even she said that.

Anonymous said...

I'm laughing at the person who said, "she's an olympian, she's famous" haha. That statement is comic genius...