PB, you do realize that this entire last post was an excerpt from the Ian Thomsen SI column? It's not my thoughts.
My take is that slave metaphors are not relevant in the situation and that both LeBron and Gilbert should have done things differently. But perceptions will always differ around race/class/etc.

There's actually a pretty heated ongoing discussion on Jackson/Lebron/Gilbert here at one of my favorite blogs:
Lebron doesn't need your help shut up