LeBron James learns royal protocol: Don't touch them

Once again, British royal watchers in the media are in a mini-huff about those irrationally exuberant Yanks breaking royal protocol.

This has been going on since ... well, mad King George III, but now the alleged perpetrator is 'King' LeBron James and newly royal Duchess Kate of Cambridge.

At the NBA game Monday night in Brooklyn, James either forgot, ignored or was never told about a top rule of meeting with royals: Don't touch them.

But he did. Horrors.

During their grip-and-grin picture op before the game, James wrapped his arm around Kate's back, producing a surprised reaction judging from the pictures and the video. Which of course the British media rushed to put online.

The Telegraph, among others, pointed out that this latest failure of American manners echoed the one in 2009 when newly elected President Obama and Michelle Obama met Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and FLOTUS put her arm around the queen in a gesture of warmth.

The queen didn't seem to mind at the time, even putting her arm around Mrs. O, but it did not go unnoticed by the British tabloids.

The history of relations between the USA and the U.K. is replete with these little mini-contretemps: Americans have a seemingly natural instinct to touch people they meet in warmth and friendship, but the royals are naturally disinclined to be pawed at by the millions of people - literally, in the case of the queen - they meet over a lifetime.

Back in 1983, during President Reagan's time in office, when the queen paid an official visit to California, a San Diego city councilman who touched her back while guiding her around was heavily criticized for the faux pas.

The queen's daughter, Princess Anne the Princess Royal, has been known to aim a laser eye at anyone not related to her who touches her.

Duchess Kate reacts to meeting LeBron James backstage at NBA game in Brooklyn on Dec. 8.(Photo: Photo by Neilson Barnard/ AP)

Every time royals turn up in the USA, palace officials put out helpful instructions on what to do and not do in the unlikely event they meet: Americans don't have to bow or curtsy (to anyone).

But don't reach for their hand to shake until they do, don't speak to them until they have spoken to you, and, most of all, don't wrap your arm around them.

Kate has been royal for less than four years but she must have gotten used to the protocol by now. She and Prince William are in the midst of a brief visit to New York and Washington, scheduled to return to London Tuesday night.

By the way, James might have been in an expansive mood during his posing with Will and Kate: His Cleveland Cavaliers went on to beat the Nets 110-88. And the picture was taken in part to display some of the cute mini-T-shirt gifts the NBA had presented to the Cambridges for their little son, Prince George.

On Twitter the reaction was predictable: Lots of sarcastic references to 'Awkward!'

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