ESPN Exposed as Publicity Machine for LeBron James

the story is harmless and at this point shouldn’t hurt LeEgo’s image any further than he’s already damaged it. Just a young millionaire doin’ what young millionaires do.

It sounds similar to what goes on at a lot of high-class parties in Vegas. That’s what Vegas is there for.

If LeBron doesn’t want to be seen this way, he shouldn’t host that kind of party. I suspect he doesn’t care. If ESPN didn’t want to hurt LeBron’s image, they shouldn’t have broadcast The Decision. All parties have nobody to blame but themselves.

Still, it seemed like harmless fun to me.

I’m glad I got to see the story after it was pulled. I can see that it’s simultaneously not a big deal, but is also illuminating as to what kind of guy James is.

Also makes me want Chris Paul a lot less.

BREAKING NEWS!!! Star NBA athletes party like rock-stars and have big egos, often possessing huge entourages that cater to their every whim

In other news, this story is lame, who cares if ESPN pulled it

Fire, hot. Water, wet.

The great firewall blocks the site where the screen capture of the original article is!

Crabman plus ESPN plus CHINA?!?!?

What can it mean???

Sorry this isn’t another CP3 trade post.

the jones killed it. matt is so funny. the nic batum of the jones.

So why did ESPN pull the plug on a story that could out LeBron as a terrible human being?

Source: http://boston.com/community/blogs/todays_soundtrack/2010/07/soundtrack_espns_coverage_fit.html

Strip clubs… legal strip clubs… attending means people are horrible human beings?

As for ESPN not being news but entertainment… duh. There are a number of “news” organizations that simply shouldn’t be called news organizations. Nice that some people are seeing it, but it’s pretty obvious that they’re entertainment focused.

And I’d love to see it. ESPN is for games that can’t be seen elsewhere and that’s it, IMO. I don’t fault them for what they do, because they’re doing what’s going to move the needle and open the wallets (or what they think will). They aren’t my kindergarten teacher and they don’t have to give my team equal run, but the last few years with the annual Favre saga, Tiger and now LeBron, the channel has been completely invalidated.

The MLB Network and NBA TV are better than ESPN for coverage of their respective sports, and they spread it around a lot better. But they never really dig into anything—being tied to the league and everything.

At least we have the Internet. There is plenty of intelligent research, analysis and coverage. Would be nice to see on television, though. And I guess I’ve kind of gotten away from the fact that we’re talking about an online ESPN issue.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aq24TRiUZNq6JBwSh7rGAu4Yc8UF?slug=ap-espn-james

BAD BAD BAD BOY!

What No TMZ coverage!

If anything I’ve learned that LeEgo enjoys crappy music while feeding his ego. I’d probably do the same but replace the crappy commercial hip-hop with some old school Wu-Tang or perhaps death metal.

It’s so popular to “hate” or dislike LeBron James right now.

For those of you riding this wave? You’re being just as manipulated as when you were told LeBron was the greatest thing on earth.

It’s like professional wrestling, you can make just as much money off the villans as the hero’s and LeBron is rapidly becoming a cartoon level villan.

Listen I don’t know LeBron James. I suspect most people commenting don’t know him. After reading that article and this post? I still don’t know LeBron James.

Things I do know? LeBrons contract in Cleveland ended and LeBron after a lengthy media circus, some of which was his fault, most of which was out of his control, decided to play in Miami.

So now even after being in the league 7+ years, it’s suddenly vogue to point out every possible fault of LeBron James. Ego, Childish Nature, Spoiled, Sexist,…I could go on. Outside of Miami it’s seems most of the N.B.A. fandom is poising themselves to make LeBron (and Miami) the player and team they love to hate. Fine…but there isn’t much more to it than booing a villan character in a Professional Wrestling match.

Is everything true? Possibly. When you combine wealth, celebrity and youth, the trappings as described in the article are available. You don’t have to like it, but why is anyone suprised? Personally? If LeBron James was my personal friend would that be the way I’d hope he’d celebrate his birthday? Probably not. Would I hope for a higher level of maturity than was seemingly illuminated? Yes, sure.

But like it or not, that’s part of our culture. Young males like nightclubs, women and alcohol and loud music. It happens. As humans we also usually like to surround ourselves with people we feel comfortable with, and in LeBron James case? That’s probably going to include a lot of people willing to call him “King” and not a lot of people willing to tell him he’s acting inmature.

In anycase, the media circus surrounding LeBron James decision was expected. What I really did not expect and I’m growing ever tired of, is the backlash of “Let’s Tear LeBron James Down” that has followed….deserved or not….

We draft these kids often barely out of their teens. Make no mistake, LeBron, Kobe or Darius Miles they are surrounded by agents, “friends” and an entire machinery that is going to want a piece of them or to invest into a piece of them. So they are going to be told they are the greatest thing on the planet. They are going to have option of hedonistic parties, of trappings of wealth and it’s going to create an enviroment that fosters inmaturity.

As I said, I don’t like it, but I’m not suprised. And in general? I’m not going to dislike LeBron James because he has parties in nightclubs, makes spontaneous comments to his friends about sexy pantiless women and in general is just behaving like a lot of us wish we could, even if the best of us know we shouldn’t.

Most of us? Article or no article, rumors or no rumors, Television specials or no television specials do not know LeBron James.
It was just as wrong to paint LeBron as a choir boy of perfect marketable niceness as it is now popular to tear him down.

ESPN, The N.B.A. and corporate America, create a machinery that makes these young athletes into marketable commodities. Nobody stops to wonder if they are emotionally equipped to deal with the realities that the freedom of wealth affords.

Like all human beings they are ultimately accountable for the decisions they make that define their personal being. But at this point? All I know is LeBron made a legal decision to play in Miami…and that he parties rather decadently in Vegas.

ESPN’s policy is to promote itself and whatever it is covering. They love the LeBron controversy because it will increase NBA ratings next season and they will encourage his depiction as a super-villain. IMO they don’t care about preserving LeBron’s image and the article was pulled for other reasons.