LeBron James follows the sun and burns NBA

LeBron James has decided to pack his bags and bring his highly marketable talents from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat. The no-doubt lucrative free agent deal will put James within the middle of a hot stew with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Pat Riley. This spells big business for the Heat and Miami and a proverbial kick to the shins for the Cavaliers and Cleveland, but as Bloomberg and other media outlets speculate, is the LeBron James deal really bad for the NBA?

Resource for this article: LeBron James decision could backfire on NBA business by Personal Money Store

LeBron James poses a problem for NBA broadcasts

The NBA has contracts with networks (ESPN, ABC, Turner), and all of them are no doubt looking forward to big Miami Heat ratings in 2010-11. But when too much talent is concentrated on one team, it takes much of the steam out of broadcasts of the rest of the NBA. The same holds true for gate receipts. LeBron James is a major drawing card; no amount of David Stern-inspired parity will overcome that. As previous CBS Sports President Neal Pilson told Bloomberg, “You can’t just show Miami all the time and certainly the TV carriers benefit when you have attractive stars and personalities on multiple teams”.

Interestingly, if LeBron James had signed with the New York Knicks (a team that was within the running), it would have been broadcasting and marketing serendipity. Consider this: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are the top Nielsen markets. His chosen city of Miami ranks at 17.

’The Decision’ was a marketing venture devoid of real substance

LeBron James and posse want you to think “The Decision” was an hour-long soul search into the heart of a hero. Bloomberg indicates that every person from the University of Phoenix and Microsoft to Coca-Cola and McDonald’s had a sponsorship stake within the manufactured event. It wasn’t all bad, as the Boys and Girls Clubs of The United States made $2.5 million off “The Decision”.

And if the Miami Heat lose?

Cleveland and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert will no doubt be happy. A lack of NBA Championship rings is the focus of a huge photo in Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer newspaper of James; he’s walking away, and the headline reads “Gone”. The mood in Cleveland must not be high, if Dan Gilbert calls a press conference for the purpose of calling James a “shockingly disloyal” narcissist. Dan Gilbert made it quite clear that there is a curse surrounding LeBron James, and that the Cavaliers will do the walk of victory long before “King” James puts the ring on his finger. LeBron James should be inspired to prove Gilbert wrong, but his level of motivation has been questioned in the past.

Take a look at this stuff

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-09/lebron-james-on-super-team-might-be-good-for-miamiheat-bad-for-the-nba.html

http://trueslant.com/level/2010/07/09/cleveland-plain-dealers-front-page-parting-short-to-lebron-james/