A Tale of Two Videos: LeBron James and Erin Andrews
What century does Nike think it’s living in?
LeBron James gets dunked on by a college kid (Xavier’s Jordan Crawford) at a pickup game and Nike confiscates the tape, thinking that would put an end to it.
Nike claimed they took the tape because it was against the basketball camp’s media policies to videotape an after hours game. Never mind that the videographers said they were given permission to tape and that the media policies never said anything about a ban on taping.
Of course, from as long ago as Richard Nixon days, we’ve all known the cover-up is worse than the crime, and in an era of instant media, it’s even more true.
The story of LeBron James’ wounded ego and Nike’s strong-arm tactics becomes headlines for several days. And, as anyone could have predicted, despite all of Nike’s efforts, a tape of the dunk ends up on the internet.
Once again, what could have been a one-day funny story becomes a week-long demonstration that LeBron is more of a prima donna and a baby than anyone ever thought.
ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews was the victim of another kind of videotape. Some creep covertly taped her naked in her hotel room through a peephole. The blurry images ended up on the internet.
Andrews’ attorney says she plans to seek criminal charges and file lawsuits against the person who shot the video (if the cops ever find him/her) and against anyone who publishes the material.
A disgusting event made even more disgusting when the NY Post published photos from the video on its front page (I’m not providing the link on purpose).
ESPN now says it won’t let any of the NY Post sports reporters appear on its shows. Too bad. I doubt it was the sports department that gave the go-ahead to the sleazy pictures.
