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The LeBrultimatum is finally upon us, and with only two hours to spare until the premiere of the Lifetime Original Movie on his decision, I have a brief opinion on all the media controversy about the decision by ESPN to allow this 1-hr special to air.
Tell me you won't flip over from your Seinfeld rerun to watch this.
All across the sports media landscape, from TV to radio to twitter, everyone is referring to King James as “LeEgo,” an extremely arrogant person who only wants the national spotlight on himself. That may be true, but aren’t we as the media viewer enabling that spotlight to be cast upon him? Aren’t we the ones tuning our televisions onto ESPN tonight at 9pm?
Here’s my take: if you don’t like the 1-hour show, then DON’T watch it. I’m tired of hearing everyone in the media say how dumb/arrogant this is, but then proceed to have their eyes glued to the TV tonight. He’s clearly the one of the best players in the league, this is clearly the biggest decision in recent NBA history, and the show will clearly get massive ratings. If everyone’s so angry at him, then fine. Don’t watch ESPN tonight.
Seriously, if you’re going to make such as fuss about it, nobody is making you watch! You don’t see a Justin Beiber hater dish out scathing comment after comment about how much they hate the kid, and then proceed to buy front row tickets to his next concert.
As I wrote months ago on this site, the decision for LeBron to host a reality showesque announcement of his decision is brilliant. The suspense has been building for years now if he’s going to stay or leave, providing countless hours and hours of programming for ESPN. You really think that after all of the build-up that this doesn’t deserve just one hour of coverage to a timeslot that would probably been devoted to a preseason WNBA game instead? Hell, the show is supposed to raise over $3 million for the Boys and Girls Club of America; how can you hate on that?
So if you want to hate, fine. Be that way. But don’t tell me you aren’t fascinated by his announcement. Personally, I’ll be sitting on my couch hoping he makes a last minute decision to join the Mavs.
4 comments so far...
You didn’t think that what he did tonight was unclassy?
It was a bit unclassy, but at the end of the day, the ratings numbers stood up to his decision. More people watched him say “Miami Heat” than watched him play in the finals three years ago.
Are you going to write about what you think of his announcement? Or predictions on how Miami does and what sort of tailspin the Cavs go into?
Clevelander: Yeah, I’ll probably delve into that more in my NBA preview column in a few months. As far as my initial thoughts though, I think LeBron’s decision was unspeakably awful for his own brand/image, but people aren’t giving him enough credit in that his decision was almost TOO unselfish. If he wants to be mentioned among Jordan, Russell, and Kareem in 30 years, he has to be THE GUY when he wins. Instead he’s just happy to win as a co-star on a great team.
As far as predictions go, it looks like the Heat are getting a few serviceable players to surround the trio, and I fully expect them to win the title this season.
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