Orange County Register

This is from reporter Cameron Bird:

While at the U.S. Open to watch tennis on Tuesday, Jason Lezak the spectator decided to turn his platform into a jokey rumor mill. Asked how Phelps had thanked him for the boost in Beijing, Lezak said his teammate bought him a six-figure car and tied a bow around it.

According to the homespun rumor, the luxury vehicle was sitting in Lezak’s Irvine driveway.

When Conan O’Brien brought the whole thing up later that day, a slightly grinning Lezak neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the gift.

To all his neighbors, it should’ve been clear from the get-go, since Lezak’s modest condo complex doesn’t even have driveways.

Here’s the original post:

Olympic gold-medal swimmer Jason Lezak of Irvine had a big hand in teammate Michael Phelps winning a record eight gold medals in Beijing, being a part of two relay winning teams, including one where he made up a body-length deficit on the French record holder. Lezak was asked Tuesday at the U.S. Open how Phelps is saying thank you.

“I just got a text message from my neighbor saying there is a fancy new car in front of the house with a bow on it. I asked him what kind of car, and all he would say is ‘You’re going to like it.’ I don’t know if it’s from Phelps or not, but it sounds like it.”

– Scott Albert

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.