Sports Biz
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Boise State Stock Plan: An Early Success
- Dollar Signs Seen In Young "Buck" Jennings
- Iverson Wasn't A Popular "Answer"
- My Top 10 Marketing Ideas For Winless Nets
- Airlines Add 'Super Bowl' Tax
- Chicken Wing Finder Makes Debut
- Michelle Wie Wins, Now What?
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
RSS FEED
SPORTS BIZ VIDEO GALLERY
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- Existing-Home Sales Jump To Highest Level in 2-1/2 Years
- TV Retailer QVC Joins 'Black Friday' Frenzy
- Buffett's Wealth and Fame Hasn't Helped 'Warren' As a Name
- Madoff—The Holiday Drink
- China Asks Its Banks to Slow Down
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Start-Up Proves Everything Really Is Better With Bacon
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
- Rally Could 'Have Some Legs in 2010': Market Strategist
- Hewlett-Packard Earnings Rise, Match Guidance
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- Wall Street 'Bonuses' Disappear—but Only in Name
- Bear, Lehman Execs Weren't Wiped Out by Crisis: Study
- How Real Estate Investors Skew Housing's Reality
- Vioxx Showed Risk Signs Before Being Pulled: Report
- Group Asks Huntsman to Cease Operations in Iran
- Even Buffett's Huge Fame Can't Help the Name 'Warren'
Text Size 
Sports Business Reporter
 |
AP LeBron James |
Jordan Crawford's dunk over LeBron James at the Cavaliers star's Skills Academy.
I'll make the story short for those who somehow haven't heard it. Crawford, who plays at Xavier, jammed on James, but Nike [NKE
Loading...
()
] confiscated the visual evidence, citing rules that stated that taping was off limits.
The story leaked out.
Yesterday's story was that Nike had the tape.
Today's story? Fans want to see the tape.
Ten years ago, this would have all gone away. Fans wouldn't have been able to generate enough noise to pressure Nike into giving the tape up. Now there's hope in generating buzz on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
So what will it take for Nike to release this thing?
Even though Nike can't put any sort of branding on the video because Crawford is still playing his college ball, I still think it would be a good business move to release this. If it gets out there, everyone will know it's because Nike decided to do it.
Nike execs know that it doesn't have to have the Swoosh on there to generate buzz. The company is probably the best company out there in terms of working with viral videos. And the truth of the matter is that one kid jamming on LeBron doesn't hurt Nike or LeBron from a marketability standpoint.
If the tape doesn't come out, you can read it in a couple ways. One, Nike doesn't want to set a precedent if their executives are serious about their filming policy. Two, they are unclear of their legal rights to air it -- they confiscated it, but they legally might not even have rights to air it. Lastly, if it doesn't come out, it might mean LeBron is legitimately being sensitive about this moment, which I honestly can't believe. The guy is the MVP of the NBA, why would he care about something like this?
Did Michael Jordan insist on pulling this video of CEO John Rogers beating him at his camp? Of course not.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes