LeBron:  The PR Nightmare

In the spirit of full disclosure I'm a long-time Knicks fan from the Willis, Clyde and Red days and vividly remember as a kid watching Reed limp out of the locker room, hit the two shots, and the Knicks winning the championship.  So my writing is clouded, albeit slightly. Other than the Miami Heat, there were no PR winners coming out of last night's Lebron-A-Thon.  In some cases, those involved may never recover from the events of the last few days.  It was likely one THE textbook case of abuse of PR power that we will witness in our lifetime.  Period. Here is my list of losers:

• The NBA and David Stern:  How Stern who has shown great leadership in his many year's as commissioner let all of this happen is truly beyond me.  Yes you can argue that his NBA dominated the airwaves for a week as "The Decision" was being made.  But at what price?  The league's owners were made out to be buffoons by its players, who then alienated a half-dozen of its core markets and at the end of the day thumbed their noses at one of those markets (Cleveland) in prime time on national television.  New suggested NBA tagline: " NBA, Where the ultimate screw job happens."  There is no way anyone should ever watch a regular season game again since only four franchises are even relevant.
• The city of Cleveland:  Okay, in the last days you knew he was going to leave, but did he have to do it on national television?  C'mon LeBron?  You just ripped the heart out of you hometown, why not spit on it and stump on it as well.
• ESPN:  Please turn in your journalism ID cards at the door… please.  This was the ultimate sell out job of all.  The network's half a dozen NBA beat writers spend days, months, years trying to break this story and then you sell your soul for the hour-long made for TV extravaganza and WAIT 30 MINUTES TO ASK THE QUESTION!!!!  Not only that, you have the guys sitting on the set ready to tell you and you speculate for that half hour as well?  The network has sold it's soul to the devil and its main "journalists" like Bob Ley and Jeremy Schaap must still be sick to their stomachs even today.
• LeBron:  Just fill in the blank….destroying his hometown and not seems to care….taking the easy way out by loading up with All-Stars….trying the wrap himself in the Boys and Girls Club flag?  This is text-book on how not to create a lasting legacy.

Please let us all learn from this.  If they made a movie about this it could not be more of a parody than it was in real life. With a possible lock out around the corner, it makes me wonder if the league or sports in general will ever truly recover from what we witnessed last night. Thoughts?