Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Decision
Unless you've been living under a rock you have undoubtedly have caught wind of LeBron James and his decision to leave his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and play for the Miami Heat next season. There has been much controversy and opinion about his decision to leave and how he went about making that decision public. One of the points of contention in the aftermath of the move has been whether LeBron has hurt is image or not. Has he impeded his chances to capitalize on his own brand by leaving Cleveland or does he stand to make substantial gains by moving his image and brand to Miami? Will winning a championship in Miami mean as much to the LeBron fans as it would have if he would have won in Cleveland? How does winning with other superstars affect his ability to market himself as the face of the NBA?
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Lebron is the man. I love his decision. The Heat are going to be unstoppable in the regular season, but the playoffs will be completely different. He will still have to beat the Lakers in the finals, if he can even get there next year. As for his image, its crazy that one guy changed the whole NBA. I think he will take a beating from fans for the first year or two, but as we saw with Kobe, winning changes everything.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Lebron's image will be tarnished except for the eyes of Cleveland. The way he broke the official news of him leaving is questionable though. A more professional manner should have been taken in that situation. He wants to win, end of story and they were willing to take less money than they could of earned elsewhere to accomplish this goal.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some good points. Athletes as a brand are similar to using CEOs as spokespersons, like in commercials. It's powerful stuff, but you must be careful in how you carry yourself, as to not tarnish the image. LeBron most likely could play for any team and prosper, it helps though that Miami is a major team. I agree with Brian, probably only the Cleveland fans will have bad feelings about him leaving and the rest of the fans are content seeing him play on whatever team he chooses. As far as the LeBron brand goes, this bit of change, switching teams, which many players do all the time, created a media storm and garnered its own TV special for his announcement. Bottom line, it was good for the LeBron brand.
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