Did The Nike Gestapo Go Too Far Protecting King James?

[nickagneta]

I wonder if Nike has the NBA working on confiscating all video on the Rondo facial of Dwight Howard in the playoffs too. Oops that's right Rondo signed a Nike deal last year so that highlight is allowed.

[Schupac]

Extremely aggravating, and completely unsurprising.  The man is a walking hype machine, so much of his persona is contrived.  Word is that he picked up much of his recent work ethic from playing with Kobe.  Maybe he also picked up Kobe's habit of constantly manufacturing his personality to the public.

[TheLegendaryClub]

Everyone thinks I'm nuts when I say I wouldn't want this guy on my team, ever. He's a great player, but I don't like his attitude, and I think he sucks the potential out of everyone around him. 

[indeedproceed]

Everything thinks I'm nuts when I say I wouldn't want this guy on my team, ever. He's a great player, but I don't like his attitude, and I think he sucks the potential out of everyone around him.

He's becoming fake like Kobe.

[bdm860]

Reminds me of my friends who play games like NBA Live or 2k or whatever.  They brag about their 82-0 record, but they only got that by resetting their game 50 times and not saving any of their losses.

[Actionjakson]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/LeBron-gets-dunked-on-by-Xavier-player-confisca?urn=ncaab,175293

Interesting Article. I really wish we could see the video!

[zerophase]

haha that's hilarious... what a poor poor sport.

[ToppersBsktball10]

Funny seeing as Nke allows footage of the Kobe Skills Academy

[guava_wrench]

This just gives us a new way to taunt Lebron.

[lon3lytoaster]

I wonder if Nike has the NBA working on confiscating all video on the Rondo facial of Dwight Howard in the playoffs too. Oops that's right Rondo signed a Nike deal last year so that highlight is allowed.

Nah, they wouldn't confiscate that. Dwight is signed to Adidas.

[Roy Hobbs]

Here's a funny photoshop (by way of RedsArmy via ProjectSpurs.)

[Steve Weinman]

You don't know that they would have done the same thing.

You're right, I don't know. But who does?

However, I just finished reading "When Nothing Else Matters" by Michael Leahy. There is an exert from the book where Jordan is shooting around with Brendan Haywood and takes him to the hoop. Haywood blocks a dunk attempt and Jordan starts to scream, "foul...foul" until he notices the press looking at the two of them. Then Jordan proceeds to storm off the court.

In Paul Shirley's book "Can I keep my Jersey?" he tells a story of Kobe blocking his shot and then telling him to get the (fill in the blank) off his court, during a pre season workout.

While I don't know that they would do the same, I'm comfortable infering that they both had similar superiority complexes to that of Lebron.

He's not the first and only superstar that is protected by a sneaker label and not the first who would try to stop an embarrassing video from reaching the public.     

the Shirley book is a must read - if its not on your summer reading list, put it on now bloggers

While we're at it, I'll testify on behalf of the other book huzy mentioned - Leahy's When Nothing Else Matters is a terrific book...really interesting look at MJ, and some great scenes re: the likes of Kwame Brown and Tyronn Lue (telling look at Doug Collins as a coach, too)...

-sw

[Ed Teach]

I like that Crawford is wearing Adidas shoes in that photo.
It would be great if he was wearing Adidas at the camp also.

[EatSleepBreatheGreen]

****.

[bobdelt]

Extremely aggravating, and completely unsurprising.  The man is a walking hype machine, so much of his persona is contrived.  Word is that he picked up much of his recent work ethic from playing with Kobe.  Maybe he also picked up Kobe's habit of constantly manufacturing his personality to the public.

I dont think these guys manufacture their personality to the public - but the public getting too far into their personality. It gets to a point, where they can't do anything natural, because they know the public will be there.

So if you're in the public eyes - you have to think about what youre going to do before you do it. But then they get blasted for "premeditating" their actions. Of course they did, whatever they do gets analyzed by millions of people.