LeBron James Comedy Movie pitch Bought by Paramount Players

The original mural, depicting LeBron in a Los Angeles Lakers jersey, included the text "The King of L.A".

Muralist Jonas Never and graffiti artist Fernando Valdez spent 12 hours over two days creating a mural of LeBron James on the wall of a Venice, Calif., barbecue restaurant after the National Basketball Association megastar signed with the Lakers in free agency.

Never said his next project is a Lakers team mural that includes all players-including James. After a disgruntled fan scribbled phrases such as "LeFraud", "We don't want you", "No King" and "3-6", in reference to LeBron's record in the NBA Finals, over the mural, Never returned to touch things up and omitted the word "of" in hopes that fans would leave the piece alone. "I guess it is never touch religion, politics or anyone against Kobe".

"I got a ton of support", Never said. The site of the mural became a battleground, getting vandalized twice in the span of five days, ultimately prompting Never to paint over his design with white paint. "The first vandalism was made easier to swallow because, by all accounts from the Twitter debate [over it] that we saw, it looked like a guy offered up a $300 bounty to anyone who destroyed the mural".

"I know when to cut my losses", Never said.

With James signing a four-year, $153 million to play for the Lakers, the possibility existed that Never would be repairing the mural for the foreseeable future. Most believed the Lakers would land Paul George or trade for Kawhi Leonard, but instead they signed Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and JaVale McGree. "But who can think throughout the course of the game?"