While posse is defined as a group of friends or associates, Keith Gilyard, a professor of English and African-American studies at Penn State, said he could understand why James took offense. The cultural definition of the word has shifted toward defining drug cartels or, in cultural terms, the group of hangers-on that surround a celebrity.

“What we’re talking about is a rhetorical moment, and one of the things that’s interesting about rhetoric is sort of the study of who can say what to whom and under what conditions — or can say what about whom and under what conditions,” Gilyard said. “The word in and of itself is never neutral. It never means the same in all contexts.”

And when the word is used publicly, as by Jackson, instead of in a private conversation, its connotation changes, Gilyard said.

“When you have an official or executive that uses that language that makes its way into mainstream circulation, it has a different meaning,” he added. “Meaning shifts depending on contexts.”

With Jackson unavailable, it left Anthony, a close friend of James’s, to answer questions about the subject. Anthony agreed that he considered “posse” a loaded term, and he said that he would not want his group of friends or family to be referred that way. But Anthony declined to ascribe any assumptions or intent to Jackson.

“Do I think he meant it any kind of way?” Anthony said. “I really don’t know. I don’t think he did. I would hope that he didn’t.

“Sometimes Phil just says things and he says the first thing that comes to mind and then probably is in his office right now regretting it. I don’t know. When it comes to Phil, you just never know what’s going to be said, what’s coming out. It depends on who’s listening. People take it the right way or people take it the wrong way. You just never know when it comes to Phil.

“I just don’t understand him talking about LeBron right now, in November. I don’t understand that.”