LeBron no longer respects Phil Jackson after 'posse' dig

LeBron James isn't letting Phil Jackson off the hook.

Jackson accused James of demanding special treatment back when he was with the Miami Heat, then discredited James' associates by calling them his "posse" instead of recognizing their legitimacy.

James responded Tuesday by saying he "had nothing but respect" for Jackson as a coach. When pressed by reporters on his use of the past tense of "had," James confirmed that he meant it that way.

"I've got nothing for him," James said.

He also clarified that Jackson only used the "posse" label because James' associates are young and black - an uncommon sight for those in player management.

"To use that label and if you go and read the definition of what the word 'posse' is, it's not what I've built over my career," James said, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. "It's not what I stand for, it's not what my family stands for. I believe the only reason he used that word is because he sees young African-Americans trying to make a difference."

"I've been in the league for 14 years and from the beginning two years in, I felt like I wanted to put my guys in positions of power, five of those guys an opportunity to better themselves and in the beginning we were highly criticized and I was highly criticized about what I wanted to do to help some guys around me become very successful in business," James said. "It just sucks that now at this point having one of the biggest businesses you can have both on and off the floor, having a certified agent in Rich Paul, having a certified business partner in Maverick Carter, that's done so many great business, that the title for young African-Americans is the word 'posse.'

"We see the success that we have but then there is always someone that let's you know still how far we still have to go as African-Americans and I don't believe that Phil Jackson would have used that term if he was doing business with someone else and working with another team or if he was working with anybody in sports that was owning a team that wasn't African-American and had a group of guys around them that didn't agree with what they did, I don't think he would have called them a posse."

"It's not surprising," James said. "If (Jackson) says it out to the media, you can only imagine what he says when the camera is not on him or the headset or whatever you guys record on. Just got a lot more work to do."

Jackson's comments surfaced Monday following an interview with ESPN. Later that night, James' manager, Maverick Carter, took exception to Jackson's "disrespectful language" and called him out on Twitter.

"That's just 12 years of hard work and dedication that we put to each other," James added. "I know Phil's in a position of power in our sport, but to criticize me and my guys over that is nonsense."