The LeBron James Thread

[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

"Ego Stroke".... Come on man... Your making it a bigger deal than it really is.

[da ThRONe]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I still think The Decision was wrong. It was wrong because it was a giant ego stroke for LeBron. He and the other two had made they're decisions and like a day before the Decision, Wade and Bosh were on Sportscenter together and made the announcement that they were signing with Miami. LeBron could have been on Sportscenter with them to announce that the three of them were going to sign together in Miami. But no no, LeBron had to have the extra ego stroke of this hour long special and everybody talking about JUST him.

I still don't get why when it comes to LeBron people act like he's being treated so differently or something. People simply do not like the kind of arrogant, pompous attitude that he's displayed in recent memory. It's been no different in any factor of life really. People kill guys like Chad Johnson all the time for his dancing and off the field stuff, but for whatever reason there isn't some secret society of defenders jumping at every sign of negativity thrown at Chad like they do LeBron and the Heat. People can't stand Terrell Owens for the exact same behaviour that LeBron is exhibiting but not a damn person breaks they're neck trying to uphold everything he does because he's treated unfairly. Bottomline The Decision didn't have to happen and pretty much every possible reason for it's inception is a negative one. They wanted to keep up the charade of the three of them having not preplanned where they were going and the 'free agent tour' was a sham. LeBron wanted to show he was bigger than Wade and Bosh and Miami was going to be his team. He was pissed that Cleveland fans booed him during the Boston series and he wanted to stick it to them and Cavs management by clowning them on national television. Eitherway, the Decision was a bad idea, which is pretty much a fact at this point considering it hasn't helped LeBron in any way and turned out to be a career damaging move.

^This is everything that's wrong with peoples opinion of the Decision. It wasn't an "ego stroke" it wasn't even LeBron idea this has already been said. His people thought it would be great for promoting LeBron as a brand to have this hour long special.

He was probably the only player in the league who could have pulled it off and had that many people watch. The only thing I think you can make an arguement about the whole thing being wrong is having teams have to wait to get his answer. That IMO was the classless part about the whole thing, but as we see how the league conducts itself. Each individual franchise will look out for itself in the end and so should every player. This has become the nature of this business for many many moons now.

[jeebs9]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

^^ Exactly ^^

Only other player would probably be Kobe.

[KSUowls]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

lol, my point is in that same post I said people aren't criticizing giving anything to charity, they're just frustrated at the argument that the Decision was fine because the money went to charity. I presented an example of how it could be stated that the charity part of it was good and nobody would argue with it.

You didn't say it, but I wasn't quoting you. I was quoting

How is it reaching to say he could give money out of his own pocket instead of what he did if he really was concerned about giving to charity?

:wink:

[KSUowls]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Speaking on The Dugout Sports Show Podcast on Wednesday, Gibson said, "The way it's said, you can't help but take it personal. ... I don't think great players should feel the need to say this about a team or say that about a team. I think what it all boils down to if you're great, you go play great, be great and everybody will realize you're great. And you wouldn't have to let it be known that everybody else was less great.

"Great players shouldn't have to do that.

"So I feel like it's kind of an admission. He might have needed some help. He might have needed to go somewhere and find someone who is a little greater so maybe he wouldn't die down in those moments."

I had no problem with anything he said up until the bolded part. At that point though he's obviously just getting defensive and trying to retaliate.

The only thing I think you can make an arguement about the whole thing being wrong is having teams have to wait to get his answer. That IMO was the classless part about the whole thing, but as we see how the league conducts itself. Each individual franchise will look out for itself in the end and so should every player. This has become the nature of this business for many many moons now.

I agree with this completely. I thought the decision was blown out of proportion. I mean I can see why people might be a bit irked because it became a bit of a circus, but I just never expected it to still be on the forefront of so many people's minds a year later. The one thing I thought he really screwed up with was making the Bulls, Cavs, Knicks, and whoever else he may have been in contact with wait until the words came out of his mouth during the interview to find out what he was doing. A courtesy call prior to would have been much more professional.

[mKoz26]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

You didn't say it, but I wasn't quoting you. I was quoting


:wink:

Exactly right. That post by King was to dispel the notion that The Decision was for charity as a primary intention. If LeBron really wanted to be charitable, he wouldn't use his Free Agency to do so.

If he wanted to be charitable, he could've done it 100 different ways that wouldn't offend people. He could give it out of his pocket, or he could hold an event. But The Decision was not an event for charity. It was an event for LeBron.

[da ThRONe]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I had no problem with anything he said up until the bolded part. At that point though he's obviously just getting defensive and trying to retaliate.




I agree with this completely. I thought the decision was blown out of proportion. I mean I can see why people might be a bit irked because it became a bit of a circus, but I just never expected it to still be on the forefront of so many people's minds a year later. The one thing I thought he really screwed up with was making the Bulls, Cavs, Knicks, and whoever else he may have been in contact with wait until the words came out of his mouth during the interview to find out what he was doing. A courtesy call prior to would have been much more professional.

Once the choose was made to do it in a press conference that made secrecy important. I'm sure his chose would have been leaked. Who would have watched that for an hour if they already knew the answer?

[da ThRONe]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Exactly right. That post by King was to dispel the notion that The Decision was for charity as a primary intention. If LeBron really wanted to be charitable, he wouldn't use his Free Agency to do so.

If he wanted to be charitable, he could've done it 100 different ways that wouldn't offend people. He could give it out of his pocket, or he could hold an event. But The Decision was not an event for charity. It was an event for LeBron.

I don't think anybody is crazy enough to think charity was the primary purpose. Maybe not secondary, but at the end they could have pocketed it all.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

I don't think anybody is crazy enough to think charity was the primary purpose. Maybe not secondary, but at the end they could have pocketed it all.

And I think everybody understands that. But some people bring up the charity aspect of it like it's supposed to make things all better and it was the reason for the thing happening.

Like I said, bottomline is The Decision was a bad idea because it didn't do anything to help LeBron. All the thing did was nearly completely derail his brand whether you agree with why people didn't like it or not. There is no way in hell you can call yourself a competent businessman and think that the Decision was going to help his career at all. Negativity was the only thing that could have come from that. Maybe if he was doing it coming off a championship win or he'd won that ring in Cleveland at some point in his seven years there, but with all the circumstances going into the show, there is no logical way to say that it was good idea and that there was nothing wrong with it I'm sorry.

[KSUowls]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

It wasn't the primary intent of The Decision. He could have just as easily pocketed the money that came with the event, but instead the Boys and Girls Club received a ton of money. Maybe even a lot more so than they would normally receive from a couple big time donors combined. The problem is a lot of people don't like what went down and so everything attached to it has a negative connotation. Obviously no one is complaining that money was given to charity, but people who are upset about what happened are being as creative as possible to find things to criticize LBJ/The Decision over.

It's fine that you feel The Decision was completely an event for Lebron. It's fine that you view that promoting himself is wrong and offensive. Both are very valid.

IMO though, acting like the fund raising aspect was not a very good thing though is just wrong and silly. And before there is any confusion, what I mean is this notion that he should somehow be criticized because he could have found some other way to be charitable that was not "offensive". He could have, but he didn't. Either way the result is the same.

I don't know maybe he should have pocketed the $2 million from the event and then wrote a check for $2 million to the boys and girls club?

[da ThRONe]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

It wasn't the primary intent of The Decision. He could have just as easily pocketed the money that came with the event, but instead the Boys and Girls Club received a ton of money. Maybe even a lot more so than they would normally receive from a couple big time donors combined. The problem is a lot of people don't like what went down and so everything attached to it has a negative connotation. Obviously no one is complaining that money was given to charity, but people who are upset about what happened are being as creative as possible to find things to criticize LBJ/The Decision over.

It's fine that you feel The Decision was completely an event for Lebron. It's fine that you view that promoting himself is wrong and offensive. Both are very valid.

IMO though, acting like the fund raising aspect was not a very good thing though is just wrong and silly. And before there is any confusion, what I mean is this notion that he should somehow be criticized because he could have found some other way to be charitable that was not "offensive". He could have, but he didn't. Either way the result is the same.

I don't know maybe he should have pocketed the $2 million from the event and then wrote a check for $2 million to the boys and girls club?

People just don't get it. They're acting like LeBron really did something illegal. It wasn't personal it was a business move not even his brain child. He didn't con anybody nodbody was forced to wait on LeBron any of those teams could have dropped out at any time. They waited because they knew his talents were worth the risk. That's why it bother me so much if it was so offensive all the teams should have said we don't want a classless person on our team. Every team is just as guilty for LeBron's "Decision" as LeBron the player. Why because just like LeBron's team each team was doing what they thought was best for each individual franchise other wise they would have just pulled out of the "LeBron sweepstakes".

[mKoz26]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

It wasn't the primary intent of The Decision. He could have just as easily pocketed the money that came with the event, but instead the Boys and Girls Club received a ton of money. Maybe even a lot more so than they would normally receive from a couple big time donors combined. The problem is a lot of people don't like what went down and so everything attached to it has a negative connotation. Obviously no one is complaining that money was given to charity, but people who are upset about what happened are being as creative as possible to find things to criticize LBJ/The Decision over.

It's fine that you feel The Decision was completely an event for Lebron. It's fine that you view that promoting himself is wrong and offensive. Both are very valid.

IMO though, acting like the fund raising aspect was not a very good thing though is just wrong and silly. And before there is any confusion, what I mean is this notion that he should somehow be criticized because he could have found some other way to be charitable that was not "offensive". He could have, but he didn't. Either way the result is the same.

I don't know maybe he should have pocketed the $2 million from the event and then wrote a check for $2 million to the boys and girls club?

LeBron himself tried to justify The Decision with the charitable aspect.

If he pocketed the money and then wrote a check, but didn't tell the media that the charity money was raised by The Decision, that would be just fine with me. The issue is that he used charity to justify it as if that was the intent of the program. It wasn't, and everybody knows that.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

The event generated more than 2 mil too for the record. They won't say the exact number of how much it made, but they sold at least 6 million dollars of ad space. So they didn't get all the proceeds just so there's no confusion on that front.

[WTF]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Sorry guys, I hadn't seen this before and I got a pretty good laugh out of it:

http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2011/05/27/the-lebron-james-headband-timeline/

Must be a really slow sports reporting weekend.

[HotSauce2k3]

Re: The LeBron James Thread

Sorry guys, I hadn't seen this before and I got a pretty good laugh out of it:

http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2011/05/27/the-lebron-james-headband-timeline/

Must be a really slow sports reporting weekend.

This was posted in the comments on that site. LMFAO.