The optics of James’ announcing that he’s going to Miami while surrounded by local kids who may reasonably cry in grief is what people in the business call a public-relations nightmare. Consider also that an enterprising reporter is sure to find a heartbroken child to be the poster boy or girl for what will be portrayed as heartless flirtation with total innocents.
If it’s not New York, why make the announcement here when he dragged everyone to Akron for the pitches? He could have stayed there and maintained an illusion of neutrality.
Salfino makes a series of reasonable points here arguing why LeBron James will inevitably end up with the Knicks. The location, he points out, is as close to New York as you can be without being in New York. The recent talk that he’s going to Miami? Salfino argues that it’s misdirection from James’ camp to build suspense around the announcement.
I don’t know. I’d say I don’t care, but that’s not entirely true. I will care if he comes to New York. That would be cool.
I won’t watch the thing tonight — there’s baseball on. Real sporting events should always take precedence over announcements about future sporting events, I think. I’m sure I’ll find out where LeBron’s heading within five minutes of the announcement, and I won’t have to sit through however many minutes of hype-machine nonsense before it.
But that said, I’m a little surprised by how much backlash there has been to the news that LeBron would announce his decision in this fashion, on ESPN. I mean, how’d you expect it to be? It’s entertainment. LeBron James is a professional basketball player. And yet this particular instance of showmanship and spectacle makes a mockery of the game?
C’mon. Maybe the league-wide disregard for traveling violations makes a mockery of the game, or the gambling officials do. But a player maximizing his time in the spotlight is only that.
Tedquarters 
My question is this, assuming like many still feel that he will go back to Cleveland, was this whole I’m a free agent look at me tour the best thing for Lebron from a marketing standpoint? Sure it gains him a world of exposure and keeps him in the news, and makes him a conquering hero if he returns home, but he would also now make everyone in NY, Chicago, NJ, and Miami hate him for teasing them and making a mockery of the process if that’s how it plays out. If he would have just signed the extension and said “I want to be in Cleveland”, I think all parties would respect that. But by doing it the way he has, by milking the FA card, and stringing along all these other cities, I think it may turn off the casual out of market Lebron fan.
It’s a good question, and I really don’t know. While I think it’ll definitely piss off casual NBA fans, it has also transcended into front-page news and US Magazine territory. So it’s probably exposed a whole lot of people who could care less about the NBA to LeBron. I don’t know what advertisers pay for, but there’s something to the “all press is good press” approach, and this has just gotten a ton of press.
I’m with you but in terms of him building a brand, I don’t think those none NBA fans who are now being exposed matter to much. Once he decides, he’s no longer on the front page, and those people go back to not caring about Lebron James.
NBA fans are what matters, and by all account people everywhere liked Lebron James before. He had casual NBA fans everywhere (by that I mean fans of other teams, who also liked him), but now he’s basically just cut off that stream of fans in NY, NJ, and Chicago for the most part (some of the biggest basketball markets).
I just don’t really see what he’s gained with the Free Agent parade if he just stays in Cleveland, besides some short lived headlines.
What has he won? SQUAT!
Just what the Knicks didn’t need, a self absorbed ego maniac who disappears at money time (not contract time, money time) I hate Kobe, but he’s in possession of 5 rings…Who’s laughing now?