I heard the tail end of a radio converstation today about a two handed throwdown at the Lebron Skills where Nike took the tapes of everyone who was recording so the dunk would not get on youtube. Anyone know what I am talking about and who was the dunker and the guy getting dunked on?
Wow this is just ridiculous. Talk about an ego. "The King" needs to stop being such a baby and just let the kid have his moment. First not shaking hands with the Magic when they handed the Cavs their arse in the Eastern Conference Finals, and now not letting Crawford get the publicity he deserves for having produced a sick dunk on the NBA's poster child.
Hahaha OMG that is great!
(07-09-2009 12:43 PM)toddbotm Wrote: [ -> ]Hahaha OMG that is great!
The less Nike or LeBron acts like it never happened and the people will never see the dunk on tape, the longer the dunk by the Xavier player over LeBron will stay in the news. Let us see the tape and it would have been over within twenty-four hours. Everyone in the NBA gets dunked on and its no shame, in my opinion. I guess if you competitive it might bother you a little more. Just because Crawford dunked over LeBron does not mean he will be a good player in the NBA or any professional league anyway.
I agree that it doesn't mean Crawford will be a good player by any means. I just want to see him dunk on Lebron at his skills camp. It's stupid to "cover it up." It's just basketball for crying out loud, not like he had a mistress or something a little more serious.
(07-08-2009 04:58 PM)toddbotm Wrote: [ -> ]Wow this is just ridiculous. Talk about an ego. "The King" needs to stop being such a baby and just let the kid have his moment. First not shaking hands with the Magic when they handed the Cavs their arse in the Eastern Conference Finals, and now not letting Crawford get the publicity he deserves for having produced a sick dunk on the NBA's poster child.
At first I was totally on board with Crawford getting publicity out of this. But the more I think of it, the more I think Nike did the right thing, just in a horrendous way.
This kid does not deserve to have his moment when he goes 100% at LBJ's event, while LBJ is going what, maybe 25%, yes, he dunks on LBJ, but wants to get publicity out of that by insinuating they were going at it at equal intensity? No. Crawford has a chance to show whether he's in it for the publicity, or whether he actually has talent.
If he has talent, he should be more careful how his image is being created by his hangers on (and I'm assuming he has quite a few, just like, unfortunately, any talented baller). Don't appear to be a cheap opportunist.
LBJ needs to revise how he does things though, this was short term horrible pr. But, conceivably, it might be worth it compared to the damage the innaccurate conclusions might have caused from just the video.
Everyone remembers the VC dunk during that international game. No one remembers that VC tried to do the same thing later on on the same 7 footer, and the 7 footer decked him. And at least in that case, it can be argued both players went at it with equal intensity.
I'm no LBJ brand fan, especially since they have been trying to incorporate so many of the successful Lil Penny strategies (Sprite, Nike, etc). But I agree with him on this.
I think they could have done it in a different way to make them look much better though.
(07-10-2009 08:02 AM)BARTLETTTIGER Wrote: [ -> ] (07-09-2009 12:43 PM)toddbotm Wrote: [ -> ]Hahaha OMG that is great!
The less Nike or LeBron acts like it never happened and the people will never see the dunk on tape, the longer the dunk by the Xavier player over LeBron will stay in the news. Let us see the tape and it would have been over within twenty-four hours. Everyone in the NBA gets dunked on and its no shame, in my opinion. I guess if you competitive it might bother you a little more. Just because Crawford dunked over LeBron does not mean he will be a good player in the NBA or any professional league anyway.
If everyone had the same rationale that you do, I don't think it would be an issue. But in trying to spread its brand, especially globally, I think Nike realizes that there are more consumers with less critical reasoning skills out there (see the consumer appetite for Paris Hilton).
Look at the appetite out there for And 1 gimmicks, J Will, AI, even Starbury. And those guys have talent. Who knows what this guy has.
But he is getting name recognition.
![[Image: lebron_dunked_on.gif]](http://new.kentuckysportsradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/lebron_dunked_on.gif)