Since LeBron James’ reputation went straight to hell in the court of public opinion in early July, I’ve pondered how you can possibly market someone whose Q rating dropped like a stone following “The Decision.”
As it turns out, Nike and ad agency Wieden+Kennedy knew exactly how to go about doing it.
Larry Johnson is the epitome of a New York success story, and while laughing and joking with his fans at a Fila event on Thursday, it was obvious he was in his element.
Here are my weekly thoughts on the game of football, with my standard disclaimer that I don’t profess to know a whole lot about the sport. Apologies for its lateness – baseball, some Halloween activities and hanging out with Larry Johnson (post forthcoming) got in the way a bit.
It’s amazing to see the fall of Brett Favre, considering the heights he came from.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not an enormous fan of Favre’s apparent heavy-handed attempt at simultaneous sexual harassment and adultery.
But the visceral jubilation I’ve seen for the destruction of Favre’s legacy is baffling to me. It seems to stem from a deep-rooted dislike of Favre that has grown over the years, and one that seems somewhat outsized.
I mean, if you took out of context the euphoria on Twitter after Favre threw an interception on Monday night against the Jets, you’d have thought we caught Osama Bin Laden.
The NBA in general does an excellent job of promoting their stars, but with Team USA and the World Basketball Festival in town, this weekend proved to me that they don’t fully comprehend just how valuable Kevin Durant has become.
As a longtime supporter of Team USA, I decided to spend Sunday checking out what a couple of notable New York City retailers had going on. In the spirit of my last trip to the NBA Store, here are some of my favorite images.
On an April night back in 2003 at the MCI Center, I sat courtside to watch a baton passed unwillingly from the former king to the future King.
An 18-year-old LeBron James used an array of circus shots and sensational dunks en route to 34 points at the Jordan Capital Classic.
And up in a skybox, wearing a garish jersey from his clothing line and flanked by Warren Sapp and Patrick Ewing, a shadowy figure glared down at the teenager set to inherit his crown.
I’ve talked about it often – that night in February 2003 when I sat under the basket in Trenton to witness a high school LeBron James streaking across the sky, two very definitive things occurred to me.
The first was that I finally had my own Jordan. Someone to follow from the start – from before the start. I was too young when MJ started, so I didn’t fully appreciate the phenomenon of his career until very late in the game. I wouldn’t make that mistake here.
And at the very same moment, I looked around me and realized that I had already lost him, partially to my own whims, which mirrored those around me.
A while back, I tossed around the idea of suggesting here that LeBron James hold a live pay-per-view special at midnight on July 1 to announce his intentions. I didn’t write it since it was obviously flawed thinking – after all, he clearly had to sit through a half-dozen bluster-filled presentations before he could come to a decision he probably knew to begin with.
But it turns out I wasn’t so far off. I was just a week early.
Remember a few days ago, when ESPN and the rest of the national media was saying the Knicks would get shut out in free agency?
So much for that. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
Last night truly felt like New Year’s Eve. When the clock flipped over to midnight, and the calendar moved to a new day and month, LeBron James became available for any team to attempt to sign. There was plenty of other top NBA talent for which that was also true, with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade at the top of the list, but there’s nobody truly like LeBron.
As recently alluded to here, The NBA Draft is one of my favorite events of the year for a variety of reasons, most notably that I’m fascinated by the thought process that goes into shaping teams for the future. And despite all the snap judgments made right after it happens, it’s impossible to know without a few years of perspective who truly wins and loses a draft.
But just as a team can set themselves up for success down the road, a simple mistake can come back to haunt a team years down the road.
Now the Cavaliers could very well re-sign LeBron James, and the Knicks could lure him to New York, as Stephen A. Smith feels they might. Those are probably his two most likely destinations for 2010-11. But if either or both misses out, they’ll probably have to look at early parts of this decade and understand that one crucial mistake each cost them big-time.