Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 am  |  58 responses

Lessons from the LeBron Dunk Footage

by Marcel Mutoni

Though it ultimately (and predictably) disappointed, the confiscated footage which surfaced yesterday taught us a few things…

1) eBaum Nation > TMZ: When it comes to video quality, eBaum had TMZ beat on the story by a very wide margin. Both sites paid a princely sum for the highly saught after video – the bidding war was reportedly, and in some ways understandably insane – but eBaum was the clear winner. Of course, not as many people read their site (plus they don’t have a TV show), so TMZ isn’t exactly losing sleep over the defeat.

2) LeBron’s camp next year is going to be an absolute circus. You know some of the kids are going to be trying to become the next Jordan Crawford, and amateur videographers will be out in full force (if they can somehow sneak cameras into the building.) Also, will the guy who got his tape famously snatched in the first place ever get it back, let alone a credential for next year’s camp?

3) Hype is always bigger (and better) than reality. The unveiling was predictably underwhelming. Such is life. Never get your hopes up too high, folks, you’ll only set yourself up for disappointment.

4) Nike and LeBron screwed this one up royally. It’s clear to anyone who watches the video that James had nothing to worry about. He obviously wasn’t playing his hardest, and got caught on a nice play from a talented college player. No big deal. Had he just ignored the entire thing, the dunk might have enjoyed relative fame, but only in the darkest corners of YouTube.

(Even the folks who bought the tape couldn’t understand the big deal about all of this. Fail, LBJ. Epic Fail.)

5) Not really a lesson – at least not yet, anyway – but what happens to Jordan Crawford now? Does Nike toss him into an ad next season lampooning the whole thing? It certainly couldn’t hurt them (or his career).

6) This, too, shall pass: Very soon, a reporter will get a hold of him and inevitably ask James about all of this, LeBron will reply with some vague statement, and the story will die. Happens all the time. Mega superstar athletes sometimes do and say crazy things when amateur video tape is rolling. Speaking of which, does anyone recall this?

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  • http://june7thdonald@netzero.com donlaker

    lets get real the puppet made bron bron look foolish and made kobe into a cookie monster..
    hope shaq can help bron and mo because,he couldnt help nash, amare,richardson.grant hill to anything
    bron i cant wait for you to get to the big apple
    and wreck shop at the m s g

  • matt604

    UPDATE: Nike will return confiscated tapes… Apparently they took them because they frown upon taping pickup games

    http://www.nba.com/2009/news/07/24/lebron.dunk.ap/index.html

  • BostonBaller

    I only had to read a few comments to get the jist of this: Haters bashing Bron and Lovers making excuses. lol. This whole “incident” does not take away from James’ awesome talent but let’s not discredit a nice dunk (and yes it looks like he tried to block it) It’s just one play out of a billion made on a daily basis.

  • BostonBaller

    Will Crawford become another grandson living downstairs from James and Kobe?

  • g

    Hey Lebron, have you seen Kobe’s 4 championship rings?

  • bill breedley

    6) The tape fiasco taught us that Lebron is a bigger douche than we had thought. The myth of Lebron has been shattered. He will be lucky to go down in history as the next Charles Barkley. It’s a disgrace to MJ’s memory to call someone dunked on by a kid the “chosen one”

  • JS Marketing

    Wish people would stop comparing Lebron to Kobe and Jordan. He isn’t even there league. Difference between good players and great players is great player win championships. Jordan 6 Rings, Kobe 4 Rings, Lebron 0 Rings. Lebron isn’t even in the elite club yet.

  • bill breedley

    you are a wise person JS. lebron should be lucky to even be compared to the likes of Barkley, mailman and ewing types of players who excelled in the late 80s to 90s but never really figured out how to win one. i see him as a penny, vince or tmac type of player. will have a good 4-6 great years tops but whose greatest achievement will be coming in at no.1 on ESPN’s nightly plays of the day.

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