While Savannah posted up strong in American Airlines Arena sporting a blinding, heart-shaped engagement ring, her fiancé, King James, and Dwyane Wade and the rest of the Miami Heat made the Michael Jordan-owned Bobcats kneel in a 129-90 NBA thrashing. Jordan, ironically, had proposed to his model girlfriend, Yvette Prieto, just days earlier. But MJ was not in a honeymoon mind-set watching his Bobcats squad get skinned and charbroiled in front of raucous fans and a national TV audience.
James, known for goofing it up big during his Cleveland Cavalier days, had the perfect setup to keep Savannah clueless on how he was going to propose to her. He set the Saturday night event in South Beach’s Shelbourne Hotel as merely a lavish birthday and New Year’s celebration with family, friends and several teammates. The girlfriend of eight years and the mother of his two sons, with whom he had already discussed taking the next logical step, had no idea what was about to go down.
After the countdown concluded – 3-2-1 … – and the “Happy New Year’s” shouts rang out, James took a knee, the media reported.
“To me, it felt like he was on his knee for an hour,” Wade said, laughing. “Even though it was 45 seconds.”
Of course, James, based on his girlfriend’s shock and subsequent tears, got the answer he wanted.
“It was real cool, an opportunity for me in my personal life,” James said, somewhat shyly, discussing his personal life.
The euphoric night sufficiently buoyed the Miami Heat the following Sunday afternoon as he and his teammates bludgeoned Jordan’s squad to push their record to 5-0 for the first time in franchise history. Just days earlier, the Heat needed last-minute heroics to dispatch the pesky Bobcats. Not this time. This time, the game was over in the first five minutes
“She’s happy, my family’s happy,” James said. “Even my kids were happy, too.”
Check out the photos of Savannah’s engagement ring up close:
–terry shropshire
