The once infamous Lebron James getting dunked on tape is finally out for all to see. But all you see is a bunch of hype over nothing. Like the rest of the sports world, I had built up this monumental play in which the NBA's biggest star was embarrassed by a college sophomore; that's right sophomore. Little did anyone know, myself included, that all this hype was over Lebron routing late to help protect the basket. Xavier's 6'4'' Jordan Crawford, the sophomore guard, crossed over his man, drove full speed into the lane and all Lebron could do was put a hand to the side of Crawford's face. Crawford put it down with two hands and celebrated back to the defensive end. Wow. Not to take anything away from the young guard, but really? All this commotion over that?
Nike finally realized the negative PR caused by this stunt and released the tapes back to two accredited journalists who filmed the dunk, according to ESPN. Nike reps confiscated the tapes shortly after 'the dunk' during King James's skills academy at the University of Akron. For the first time in his career, James experienced negative PR after he went M.I.A. from the court once he lost the Eastern Conference Finals. This stunt, shortly after, hadn't helped his rep. With this realization, Nike released the tapes.
Regardless of the 'media rules' Nike said they had to go by, once seeing the dunk you have to wondering why bring spotlight to their star in that way? Was the dunk that great? Can Lebron never show his face on the court again The hype surrounding the dunk made James look even worse then the play actually was. Nike could have rushed out a commercial with the play and spun it somehow, but the play alone is disappointing. Maybe that's why Nike didn't just do it for once and the results were less then satisfactory.
FYI...here is a link to view the dunk incase you missed it:
Keywords: Cleveland Cavaliers, Jordan Crawford, Lebron James
