Lebron James Desicion

In case you haven't heard, one of the best basketball players on the globe had a one hour special to announce his free agency decision in the summer of 2010. LeBron James went on ESPN on July 8th to tell the basketball world he was taking his talents to south beach to join the Miami Heat. “The Decision” as it became know, brought LeBron quite a bit of hate not only from fans from Cleveland (the team he was previously on) but from fans all around the league and even some players. The main reason for this is because he was viewed as selfish and egotistical in making a one hour special just to tell people where he was going to play basketball next season. Most people see the surface of the situation but don’t take into account everything that went on outside the publics focus. Even events like this have a lot going on in the background that the sports industry should take a look at. People seem to over look the fact that it wasn’t LeBron’s idea to have the special, he just went along with it. Like every other superstar athlete or celebrity, LeBron has a managing team that makes most if not all of his media related decisions or appearances. He has a publicist, an agent, a stylist and a business manager. This business managers name is Maverick Cater and he is the one who released this statement to ESPN, “Due to the unprecedented attention and interest surrounding LeBron’s decision, we have decided to make this announcement on national television”. LeBron saw this as an opportunity to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of America, a foundation he has been very publicly supportive of. His marketing team saw this as an opportunity to sell LeBron “The Icon” because popularity for him meant “cha-ching” for them. ESPN went along with it because LeBron is a huge star and they were interested in boosting ratings.
“The Decision”, ratings wise was a huge success for ESPN. According to preliminary number from Nielsen co, in the nations 56 biggest television markets,