In the last week, every bit of non-news has turned into news, every bit of non-news contradicting the previous bit of non-news. If anything has spoken more to the ridiculous nature of media in 2010, it's been NBA free agency and, I must say, I'm just as guilty of it as anyone.
Fans of Cleveland gave up three days of their lives last week to line the streets and show their support for LeBron James and their disdain for the Knicks, Bulls, Heat, Nets and Clippers as they attempted to woo him away from the Cavaliers. Stories such as LeBron showing up for the meetings wearing shorts, or him showing up at his basketball camp wearing a Yankees hat, became national news. On July 28, it was reported that James and Chris Bosh signing with the Bulls was a "done deal" and just one day later, Stephen A. Smith reported that James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade had held a summit and joined forces, deciding that they were going to join forces in Miami. This preceded Stephen A. retracting the report about a week later, essentially reporting that his report was incorrect.
Reports of how the teams made their pitch became major headlines, ranging from the Cavaliers showing him Family Guy-style cartoons to the Bulls brass walking across the street like they were the Beatles on the Abbey Road album to the Knicks telling LeBron how they could make him a billionaire. That the Heat met with him for nearly three hours and the Clippers for less than one was national news.
Yesterday, all of the sports websites had some variation of this headline among its top stories: "LeBron joins Twitter." No, seriously. This was considered a national sports story of importance, James joining a social media site.
But it hasn't been all about LeBron. Last Friday, ESPN's Chad Ford reported that Dwyane Wade was leaning toward committing to joining the Bulls, then it became even bigger news that Wade and Bosh were meeting the Bulls simultaneously, causing massive pain in Miami and jubilation in Chicago. And at the same time, ESPN's Chris Sheridan reported that the so-called done deal of Joe Johnson re-signing with the Hawks wasn't such a done deal because he was still considering the Knicks and Bulls too (as if anyone really cares about Joe Johnson). Bosh, meanwhile, was chronicling his free agency tour on Twitter (even posting a photo of himself having dinner with Wade while cryptically saying that "someone" was missing) while both he and Wade were making a documentary of their free agency whirlwind. Then Amar'e Stoudemire joined the Knicks (at least this was actual news) and started angling for Carmelo Anthony and Tony Parker to join him, even though neither is a free agent for another year, making New Yorkers delirious ("We're gonna get LeBron, Melo, Parker, Evan Longoria and Amar'e!").
Nothing has demonstrated non-news turning into major news more than NBA free agency 2010 and there's no doubt that LeBron, Wade and Bosh are eating it up. If anything, LeBron probably now wishes he hadn't rejected the notion of a whirlwind free agency tour where he threw out the first pitch at Wrigley, partied in Manhattan with Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov, attended a Yankees game with Mike D'Antoni and had drinks poured down his and Pat Riley's throats on South Beach. It's all reaching a culmination on Thursday, with ESPN and LeBron joining forces on a one-hour television special to announce where he's going, a show that feels rather anticlimactic because everyone except Chris Sheridan (the only reporter left that feels LeBron is going to the Knicks) seems to believe his return to Cleveland is pretty much a formality at this point. It's somewhat reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's 2004 television announcement that he would stay with the Lakers, something also seen as a given at the time, especially since the Lakers had traded away nemesis Shaquille O'Neal a couple days prior.
Everyone is going to pile on to LeBron for doing this television thing (if Bob Ryan is on PTI tonight, you can pretty much guarantee that he's going to scream about it) but the reality of the situation is that the media that complains about this is the same media that created all of this, created the monster that is King James and that is this free agency tour. If you ask me, this is a smart move by LeBron, whose free agency has been more important to American sports fans than the NBA Finals or any game LeBron has actually played.
All I know is that this show culminates a really sad couple of weeks in the history of sports journalism and makes me happy that I chose blogging instead of news reporting as a line of work (can blogging be a profession?). I'd be embarrassed if I were a member of the news media right about now.
At this point, I believe LeBron is going to re-sign with the Cavaliers (even though even without Bosh or Wade, Chicago is the best fit for his long-term interests of winning). I believe he's going to have an opt-out in three years so he can do all of this again, only next time he'll probably decide it isn't worth such media attention (whether the media agrees or not is another story entirely). And I'll be tuned in on Thursday to watch.
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