ATLANTA -- Just when you thought you knew everything about CC Sabathia comes this revelation: He sleeps in a LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers jersey every night.

And this: He has a selection of fuzzy slippers that he wears every day. One days it's the Minions, another it's Bart Simpson, sometimes Homer Simpson.

And oh yeah, he enjoys an occasional smoke on his balcony.

This is more information than any of us need to know about our favorite athletes, but it is still the kind of information that is worth a lot of money to some people, including the unnamed photographer who wanted to be paid to make sure his photo of Sabathia -- in his LBJ jersey, wearing his fuzzy slippers, and smoking something that the shooter thought might be a bit of incriminating evidence -- never saw the light of day.

CC Sabathia blew off an extortion attempt by paparazzi recently, embracing the pictures they took of him. Richard Mackson/USA TODAY Sports

"Amber [Sabathia] got an email saying they had pictures of me doing something I shouldn’t supposed to be doing," Sabathia said at his locker in the visitor's clubhouse at Turner Field before Saturday night's New York Yankees-Braves game. "I knew I wasn’t doing anything I wasn't supposed to be doing. We were like, 'What the f--- are you talking about?"

So instead of paying what amounted to extortion, Sabathia posted one of the photos attached to the email on his Instagram account. The implication, of course, was that the Yankees' $25-million-a-year lefthander was smoking a joint. He said it was a cigarillo. In any event, whatever he was smoking was not identifiable in the picture, which Sabathia later took down after he said he was contacted by a New York newspaper informing him it had, in fact, paid for the exclusive rights to the photo.

Unlike the incident in Toronto two weeks ago, when Sabathia was caught on videotape in an angry confrontation with some fans at a nightclub, CC took the latest social media tempest in stride. Sabathia never even bothered to get Yankee security involved.

"I think it's funny," he said. "It kinda is what it is, it’s this day and age, so especially after what happened to me in Toronto, I just felt like, this is stupid, so I just need to get this over with, I guess."

What was disturbing to Sabathia, who is in Atlanta with and his wife and their four kids, is that the anonymous photographer was able to locate them even though he is not staying at the team hotel.

"I think it’s kinda spooky a little bit that someone would do that," he said.

Sabathia said he chose to stay at a different hotel because the one the Yankees are staying at did not have a swimming pool.

"My kids can't live without a pool," he said.

When Sabathia posted the photo to his Instagram account he included the message, "Shout out to the Paparazzi for catching me on the smallest balcony ever trying to relax with my 4 kids driving me crazy!" Underneath, he added hashtags of "ItsOnlyACigar," "GuessImFamous," and "CanILive" among others.

"Who knows, maybe I'll get my own cigar line out of this?" he joked.

Of more importance to Yankee fans is that Sabathia, who is on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his degenerative right knee, took the field to play catch before the game wearing a large steel brace of the kind football players wear to protect their knees after surgery. Sabathia said the brace "felt good," and was not an impediment to him throwing the ball, although there is still no timetable for his return. In truth, there is much doubt that he will throw another pitch this season.

"It feels pretty good, but I'm just taking it day by day," he said.

All while trying to dodge the prying eyes of the paparazzi.