• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 2, 2010

Man, don't cross Jimmy Kimmel. Dude bears some major-league grudges.

Jay Leno is his affliction. In the way LeBron James is to Dan Gilbert. Gilbert is the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's still seething over losing James to Miami this summer. Gilbert is trying to needle James by investigating whether Miami and James were in cahoots to bring the superstar to South Beach. It adds some spice to tonight's game on TNT, when James makes his highly charged return to Cleveland.

Gilbert's gambit is quixotic and laughable, but entertaining. So is Kimmel's latest anti-Leno diatribe. It comes months after the Leno-Conan mess. Dude can't let it go.

Tabbed a "man of the year" by GQ, Kimmel tells the magazine the late-night snafu left him understanding: "The lesson is, it pays to be sneaky ... and don't trust Jay Leno."

Kimmel suggested Leno had an elaborate plot to return to "The Tonight Show" to reclaim his seat from Conan. Leno would host the new show at 10 p.m., it would fail, that would be a poor lead-in for "Tonight" and Conan's ratings would suffer. Then, he'd tell NBC: "Tonight" was fine when I was there, take me back.

"I tell you, the moment I heard about this ten o'clock deal, I thought that's exactly what he's up to," Kimmel told GQ. "I knew immediately he had "The Tonight Show" in his head, that he'd take that show back."

Kimmel is on ABC, but when the Leno-Conan chaos was at its height, he boldly waded in. He did his show as an exaggerated-chinned Leno, and appeared on Leno's show and skewered him.

It's still a bit unclear why Kimmel got so pointedly involved. An opportunity to boost his own profile? Loyalty to Conan? (He tells GQ, it was "sh*tty" what happened to him)? Morality? (You serious, it's Hollywood.) But Kimmel says when Leno agreed five years ago to give up "Tonight" in 2009, he should not have gone back on his word.

What's remarkable is how close Kimmel and Leno were not too long before, chronicled in Bill Carter's "The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy." During the 2007 writers' strike, all the late-night comedians struggled to return to work.

And Carter writes, Leno and Kimmel chatted almost daily -- with Leno providing counsel -- as they strategized how to handle the wrenching politics of saving face, while possibly crossing a picket line. And both agreed David Letterman's unique deal with his writers that allowed him to return was "fu*king ridiculous."

When Leno considered moving to ABC, Kimmel tells GQ he wasn't entirely opposed to it, though it may have moved his 12 a.m. show later. He and Leno talked a lot, as Leno considered coming over.

By the way, Carter dismissed suggestions on CNN that Leno had a plan to fail in prime time and maneuver to return to the "Tonight Show." That would have entailed Leno willing to "fail and humiliate himself." Carter said. "That just doesn't make any sense, because I do think he was damaged by that."

In any case, the 2010 late-night turmoil had Conan failing in the ratings, Leno appearing selfish and Letterman still cantankerous. So, GQ portrays Kimmel as the sublime one.

It "left everyone involved, well, debased. Everyone except Jimmy Kimmel." Further, "you know who was the only man to emerge with his honor (and balls) intact? Jimmy Kimmel, the new king of late night."

Wow, GQ has some balls.