LeBron James’ Decision: The Most Pointless Televised Event in Sports History

I’m sure you all know what the decision is. On July 8th, 2010, before a small live audience and 13.1 Million people watching on ESPN, NBA superstar LeBron James announced he was “taking my talents to South Beach” to join the Miami Heat. It ended up being a big moment in modern NBA history, as the move lead to a dynasty. However, I must pose the question: why in the hell was it televised?

The obvious reason would be to gather views and boost ratings.  However, there wasn’t a televised decision special for ANY OTHER free agent that year and there hasn’t been since. Are you meaning to tell me that no other free agent wouldn’t have garnered ratings? Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant will be a free agent this offseason. Do you think ESPN is jumping at the opportunity to do a televised special for his decision? No, they aren’t. So why LeBron? What makes him so special?

Most fans are lead to believe that ESPN has a bit of a crush on LeBron. Now, I’m not going to reiterate that. I’m not going to use this small website to accuse a multi billion dollar television network of having bias towards certain players (cough cough LeBron and Steph Curry cough cough). Nor do I believe that had anything to do with why they televised this pointless event.

Let’s not forget the money ESPN surely made off of this. This could’ve been a cash grab, not that ESPN needs it. But hey, never say no to money. Never.

Well, there are a lot of possibilities as to why they decided to do this. For me, this is the most pointless televised event in sports history. The announcement was astronomical, yes, but the event that was held for it was completely pointless.

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