LeBron James booted from TTD queue Monday??? You b

If you visited CP Monday, you would have noticed a lot of kids from Akron St. Mary's St. Vincent's high school, the school that boasts a state championship basketball team in Ohio that happens to feature this year's probable NBA No. 1 draft pick, LeBron James.

I was standing in line in the Top Thrill Dragster queue around 3 p.m. Monday (June 2) when a rather large man jumped several queue barriers and had an entourage of people following him. They hopped into the "Freeway" queue line (which was not being used that day) and raced closer to the front of the line.

A few moments later, a security guard and a CP employee went up the "Freeway" line to find the kids.

When they came back, they were escorting the large man out of the ride on the blacktop strip that goes down the center of the ride. The man shrugged off the security guard and walked out the entranceway in a huff. Some of those waiting in the hour-and-a-half wait line cheered.

Later, when we got to the station platform, we overheard a park ops employee saying "I don't care if it is the NBA's top draft pick, he has to wait like everyone else."

Put two and two together.....and then it hit me. They kicked LeBron James out of line on TTD!!! WOW!

I asked the employee if he knew that it was definately James, and he confirmed it. He said he hated to do it, but it's the park's rules. (I thought the rules said that line jumping equaled ejection, oh well...)

I later saw Lebron with a 30+ gang of people around him walking on the midway. I'm pretty sure it was him.

That pretty much made my day. A ride on TTD and seeing the No. 1 draft pick get the boot. Anyone else witness this on another ride?

I think i was actually walking in line when that happened. Im not sure but there was some security guards looking at him and the workers were opened mouthed. Could have been what you were talking about.

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Hey ive probably met you at cedar point, im there enough!! And thats me in the picture on the left

Good for them. Excellent work by the park. There's not much more nauseating than spoiled brats.

-- Harley

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CP fan since 68.

Just one question, how tall is LeBron James? Wouldn't LeBron be too tall anyways to ride TTD?

isn't he too tall to ride TTD though?

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Ed Markey is my anti-drug.
Rollercoasters have proven to cause brain damage in stupid politicians.

trips to CP:6 Dragster:2 MFer:6 Magnum: 13 Running with the bulls for a 15 minutes dragster wait, Must be June!

According to USA Today on Tues. Lebron James was in Chicago for his NBA physical.

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The best thing about Six Flags "Worlds of Adventure" is that Cedar Point is nearby!

LeBron is 6-8, which may, indeed, be too tall to ride TTD.

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Dragster "Top Thrills": 2
World's first strata-coaster!

Again, Depends on where all his height is. In the legs, he could pull it off, the tourso maybe not.

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Thunder Canyon 2003

Make Love Not War.

You'd think a 6'8 guy would be too big to ride the TTD, but he tried to anyway. I don't know if he got on the ride later that day or not after he was escorted out.

And yes, Lebron James was in Chicago the next day for draft physicals and workouts. Cedar Point is only 30-45 minutes by plane from Chicago, right? And if you just got $90 mil from Nike to wear their shoes, wouldn't you have a plane at the local airport on standby to fly you to Chi-Town?

I'm acutally surprised he wasn't treated as a celebrity at the park like when Nsync came. Either way, the kid is freakishly huge and I wouldn't be surprised if he was too tall. I saw him play against Ottowa Glandorf at UT a few months back, actually sat in the Akron student section...amazing.
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"Wheres the Callahan factory?!?!?"

I don't discount your theory that it was him, but there are two things I'd like to point out.

First is that he has been respectful and humble at least for the media. I sense the kid has some class.

Second, he was there with a group from his school. Not sure if I'd call that an "entourage." I heard he really liked the ride.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

I wonder if anyone who recognized him bought his ride photo as a souvenier - for themselves! How much do you think it would fetch on eBay?

I would have. I could always use the money!

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"Have you seen my cheese?"

I can definitely confirm a LeBron sighting, my school was there also on Monday and my friend saw him. Apparently he was getting yelled at for sitting on the hand rails, from an eye-witness account of my friend.

Good for them. Excellent work by the park. There's not much more nauseating than spoiled brats. -- Harley

LOL!!!!

I think the right word would be "Possie" ;-)

I'm sooooooooo sick of hearing about LeBron! You'd think he's the next best thing since sliced bread! It really irks me how they treat him like a "God" and put him up on this pedestal. It's not like he has a real job or anything! It will be interesting to see how this kid pans out (or doesn't).
*** This post was edited by TPolansky 6/4/2003 4:18:16 PM ***

Great job by the park! :)

That's got to be the funniest thing I've heard all day. My friend once saw Michael Jordan with his kids in line for Wildcat back in 1994 or 95. He actually waited in line, and then couldn't fit into the car. He stood by the exit while his kids rode.

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-Chris Woodard
"If you're standing in an uncomfortable position, that means you are in the right position because you are riding Mantis!" - Mantis ride op doing spiels on closing day.

Jeff said:
First is that he has been respectful and humble at least for the media. I sense the kid has some class.

Yeah, I've heard conflicting things. My mom's school went that day, and while some of the kids said he was a total jerk, he apparantly was nice enough to pose for several photographs. An 8th grader's conception of "total jerk" could simply be "slight exasperation with pestering 14-year-olds".

As I hear it, he did try to cut in line, but when security told him he couldn't, we was evidently nice about it and didn't make a big deal (i.e., throw a "JLo-esque" fit about it).

I thought they let celebrities ride at a different time or something.. perhaps he's not a celebrity perse, but hm what about the protection etc. Am I being paranoid? But I honestly thought they didn't have to get in line like everyone else. Perks of the job.

Craig the Coaster Freak said:
I can definitely confirm a LeBron sighting, my school was there also on Monday and my friend saw him. Apparently he was getting yelled at for sitting on the hand rails, from an eye-witness account of my friend.

I would like to see a man that is 6'8 "sit" on a handrail, he was probably just leaning on it.

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The best thing about Six Flags "Worlds of Adventure" is that Cedar Point is nearby!