This must be why it’s good to be King

The variation of the age-old question relates to LeBron James: If a college basketball player dunks on him, but the video evidence is confiscated, did it really happen?

After Xavier’s Jordan Crawford dunked on James at his skills camp Monday in Akron, Ohio, freelance photographer Ryan Miller told CBS Sports that a Nike representative took his footage upon James’ request.

“He just said, ‘We have to take your tape,’ ” Miller told CBS Sports. “They took it from other guys too.”

James’ censorship mandate brings new meaning to his nickname “King James.”

“There’s nothing I can think of besides LeBron just not wanting it online,” Miller told CBS Sports. “It’s a good story to tell people, I guess,” adding that he was a bit angry. “I lost my tape.”

Trivia time

What player got the most hits in the National League during the 1950s?

Starting young

It apparently is never too early for tennis instructor Rick Macy to start grooming tennis stars.

He coached Venus Williams and Andy Roddick, and now has his eyes set on a 4-year-old, Australian phenom Mia Lines.

“I’ve never seen anybody with feet like this,” Macy told WPTV, an NBC affiliate in Miami. “She has very good hand-eye coordination for 4, it’s uncanny. This is the scariest little creature I’ve ever seen.”

That creature said her goals include winning the following: Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and the U.S. Open. Lofty goals, some might say, but Lines’ father Glenn doesn’t think they’re out of reach.

“The first thing Mia ever saw [after she was born] was a tennis ball,” he said.

MJ and UFC

Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant appeared at Michael Jackson’s memorial. Clippers guard Baron Davis tweeted he’s devoting the upcoming season to him. And newly signed Laker Ron Artest rapped about the pop icon.

But other sports also caught MJ’s attention.

“He was a fan and he watched the UFC pay-per-views and he was into it,” league CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Trivia answer

Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies, with 1,875 hits.

(Question and answer provided by reader John Francis of Whittier.)

And finally

Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski ponders who is the dominant athlete in his respective sport, golfer Tiger Woods or tennis player Roger Federer.

After grueling analysis, Posnanski concludes, “I suspect that choosing between Woods and Federer really does come down to choosing between [Frank] Sinatra and [Johnny] Mathis, between a killer and an artist, between a steely 12-foot putt to save par and a drop shot that hits the ground and doesn’t bounce up. It’s all how you view the world.”

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mark.medina@latimes.com

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