Jarhed

LeBron gets dunked on by Xavier player, confiscates all video - The Dagger - NCAA Hoops - Rivals.com

It was assumed he was called "King James" because he reigns on the basketball court. But maybe LeBron James earned that nickname due to his tyrannical ways (in dealing with embarrassment).

On Monday, Jordan Crawford, a sophomore at Xavier (by way of Indiana), reportedly dunked on LeBron during a pick-up game at the LeBron James Skills Academy. Garry Parrish of CBSSports.com wrote that one high school player said, "it was bad". (We can only assume he meant "bad" in the Michael Jackson sort of way.)

LeBron must have agreed, because he had Nike officials confiscate the two videos that were taken of the dunk. (Parrish blames Nike, but reading between the lines it seems like the censorship was orchestrated by LeBron himself.)

Ryan Miller, a freelance photographer who was working at the camp that day, told CBSSports.com:

"LeBron called [Nike Basketball Senior Director Lynn Merritt] over and told him something," Miller said. "That's how I knew his name was Lynn. LeBron said, 'Hey, Lynn. Come here.'"

A few minutes later, Miller's tape was confiscated.

Connecting the dots, it seems clear that LeBron didn't want video leaking out of him getting dunked on by a college sophomore, so he told a Nike official to get the tape. It was an understandable reflex move (gotta protect the image), but it also unnecessarily makes a mountain out of a molehill.

The Crawford dunk would have been a temporary embarrassment for LeBron. Let's say the video was put on YouTube. It blows up for a bit, dominates blogs for 36 hours, everyone has a good chuckle and then it's forgotten about.

But by censoring the tape, LeBron turns the dunk into a legend. On video, it's just a dunk. Without video, the jam can reach mythic proportions. Because nobody can see it, the story of the dunk will grow in stature with each telling. Today, it was a simple two-handed slam. In a few days, it will be a 360-degree windmill. By the time Crawford makes his Xavier debut in October, he will have jumped off LeBron's shoulders, flipped in the air, slammed the ball home with his left pinkie and then handed LeBron $3.99 for his dry cleaning.

Without the video, we'll never know. Although, given his past history, I think it's safe to say that LeBron probably walked off the court without shaking Crawford's hand.

http://i40.tinypic.com/wr1646.jpg

bio-chem

this story makes a mountain out of a mole hill
lebron is following in MJ's footsteps of image protection. nothing new here

I Are Baboon

Well that is what the story says:


Lebron is coming off like a pussy.

IainDaniel

I would come off as a pussy to make the kind of money he does.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

bio-chem

no, im saying this reporter's story is making a mountain out of a mole hill. not lebrons actions.

jbish8

Let's see........two reporters who broke the rules that have been standard at these Nike camps for ten years (no video coverage), had their precious cameras confiscated. What better way to get back at Nike then to make up a story about Nike's new golden boy looking like a chump......noooo they wouldn't do that, that would be lying
Not saying it didn't happen, but who cares if it did, and there are other plausible explanations given the circumstances.

IainDaniel

And it would have stayed a mole hill if lebron and the nike executives didn't pull the pussy move on this.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

oaktownboy

either way, all the publicity it's getting is making Lebron look bad

Chuck Norris once lost his keys and couldn't remember where he put them. So he tortured himself for half an hour until he gave up their location.