Seth Meyers mining LeBron's future for laughs

LOS ANGELES --- Like a lot of other folks, Seth Meyers is waiting to learn where LeBron James is going to play basketball next season.

But Meyers' interest is purely for laughs. The host of "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live" is mining the drama over James' decision for some comic nuggets to use when Meyers hosts the ESPY Awards.

The annual show honoring the year's best sports moments airs live on ESPN on July 14 from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

"I really like the idea of an entire hour of television being dedicated to a person naming one team," Meyers joked Wednesday. "That's really exciting."

James is expected to announce his future destination in an hour-long special airing Thursday night on ESPN.

Although James' decision will be known by the time of the ESPYS, Meyers said, "We can make jokes about how it happened."

With James and several other high-profile NBA free agents considering switching teams, Meyers said it's had an effect on the show.

"We had written a huge opening musical number, 'Everyone Is Playing for the Chicago Bulls,' and it's already completely obsolete," he said.

Meyers presented at last year's ESPYs, and is hosting for the first time.

"What I'm most anxious about is, I've certainly joked about athletes before but never when they're actually physically there," he said.

Following an ESPYs tradition, Meyers has pretaped comedy bits with some athletes.

"They are hilarious," he promised. "I went to the best sports show host ever, and I asked Peyton Manning for a favor. The athletes are always very game."

Among the scheduled presenters are Will Ferrell, singer Kenny Chesney, former ESPYs host Samuel L. Jackson, Tracy Morgan, Danica Patrick, Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, and actor Zac Efron.