We doubt when choosing the April cover, with LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen, Vogue editor Anna Wintour ever conjured up the thought, "This is just the type of controversy we're looking to court." In fact, the idea the cover would cause any rift within the media or black communities probably never crossed her mind. Instead, she saw: Pretty model wearing fantastic gown, giant athlete wearing synthetic fibers. Even photog Annie Leibovitz probably didn't foresee the coming scandal.

But that doesn't let her off the hook for this "King Kong" cover, even if LeBron himself doesn't have a problem with the photo. Sure, the NAACP, which SPEAKS FOR EVERY BLACK AMERICAN EVER, has barely weighed in and says it has bigger problems to deal with, but inside baseball players like Men's Fitness editor Roy Johnson calling foul:

"It's a reminder that as African-Americans, we have come very far to have an African-American male featured on the cover of Vogue, but we have very far to go to continue to educate people within our industry regarding the power of images and the potential impact they can have on their readers."

James' appearance on Vogue is the second time a black person has appeared on the cover of Vogue recently; last time it was Jennifer Hudson, whose open-mouthed photo had Gawker asking whether the only way a magazine will feature an African-American is with mouth agape.

Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici makes a worthwhile point: "Had the exact same photo of James appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine, sans Bundchen, no one would've batted an eye; conversely, had Vogue paired the two but had him calm and smiling, the stereotype police would probably still have sounded the alarm, albeit in smaller numbers."