James Already Carries Price

LeBron James has drawn his first NBA foul--and it cost the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The league fined the Cavaliers $150,000 Tuesday and suspended Coach John Lucas for the first two games of next season for including James, one of the nation’s top high school basketball players, in a voluntary workout for players last week at Gund Arena.

In a statement, the league said Lucas was fined for “violating league rules prohibiting contact between NBA teams and players not yet eligible for the NBA draft.”

James, a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High in Akron, Ohio, was invited to a May 22 workout along with several local college players and some free agents by Lucas.

Cavalier spokesman Ed Markey declined to comment, and Lucas did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The league’s rules state, “teams may not directly or indirectly have or engage or attempt to have or engage in any discussion, communications or contact whatsoever with any player who has remaining intercollegiate basketball eligibility or is otherwise ineligible to be selected in such draft.”

At the workout, the 17-year-old James dazzled the Cavaliers and others in attendance, soaring for several spectacular dunks and showing why many believe he will be the first player taken in the 2003 NBA draft if he decides not to attend college.