Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [392]
Some columnists who normally never wrote about ESPN or its programming were so angered by the prime-time hour that they departed from their own precedent and reviewed the show. One conspicuous example: Maureen Dowd, the distinguished yet entertaining op-ed columnist for the New York Times, who stepped down from a fairly lofty perch to write not only about television but about cable television—and sports television as well.
Apparently the interview with LeBron had qualified as a genuine cultural event, something to be analyzed for its significance as well as pummeled for its shameless commercialism. Dowd referred to the interview as “a special—and specially obnoxious—show,” which amounted to “twenty-eight minutes of contrived suspense” that she compared to “The Bachelor, [but] without the rose for the winner.” James’s move from Cleveland to what Dowd called “My-Am-Me” might be good for him, she speculated, but she lamented the fact that James “seems to have no idea of the public relations damage he has inflicted upon himself.”
There was more, not only from Dowd but about her. Other bloggers and columnists took to their keyboards to opine about Dowd’s opinions. In a variation on “six degrees of separation,” other columnists joined the fray. For all that, ESPN officials still had plenty of consolation, courtesy of Nielsen Media Research. It seems “The Decision” had been a decisive hit for the network, registering a very unusual 7.3 rating for ESPN and attracting an audience estimated at just under 10 million homes.
With results like that, slings and arrows from critics and op-ed columnists really didn’t cause much damage or serious injury. The ancient line about “crying all the way to the bank” was apt once more.
JIM GRAY:
I don’t care what anybody else’s version was or is, I never once spoke to ESPN about doing an interview with LeBron James. Here is exactly what happened: Maverick Carter [CEO of LeBron James’s marketing company] was sitting with [agent] Ari Emanuel next to the Lakers bench at Game Two of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and the Lakers. I went to that game with my wife as a guest of the commissioner. During halftime, I walked down to say hello. I’ve known Maverick for a long time; I had done an interview with LeBron when he was in high school; I was there when he was drafted; and I did the broadcast of LeBron’s first game as a pro. So I have a long history with him.
I asked, “Maverick, how’s this free agency process going?” Now, this was before it could actually start, and he said, “Good, there’ll be a lot going on, a lot of interest,” so we chitchatted, and then I said, “I’d like to have the first interview with LeBron when he decides what he’s doing.” He said, “Okay, we’ll think about that, sounds pretty good.” But by the end of this conversation, I said, “Better yet, Maverick, why don’t we do this: Why don’t we go buy an hour of network time, you produce the show, you own the show, I get to do the interview, and you have LeBron make the announcement of where he’s going to go.” Before I got the last three words out of my mouth, Ari said, “That’s a brilliant idea. That’s unbelievable. Maverick, you ought to do that!” Then Maverick looked at Ari and said, “Okay. You want to handle it?” Ari said, “Yeah, that’s great, let’s do this.” Maverick then said, “You know what, we can raise a bunch of money for charity, so that no one will think LeBron is going to profit from this.” Then Maverick told me to stay in touch with him, and Ari, and that was that.
As the process went on, I would text Maverick to ask, “What’s going on?” and he’d say, “We’re doing this, we’re doing that, Ari’s working on it, stay in touch.”