You want to see video of Xavier's Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James?Crawford, a transfer from Indiana, apparently "posterized" LeBron not once but twice during the scrimmage. Reading further, it sounds like Nike officials were actually acting at the behest of LeBron and his entourage. To which I say: Why? What's the big deal? If anything, confiscating all proof that the dunk took place doesn't really do anything except enhance the legend. It's like the story about the investment bank CEO who beat MJ one-on-one (40-year old MJ, it should be noted). You hear about it and figure, Damn, this I gotta see, only to watch the footage and try to decipher what the hype was all about. Leaving this thing to the imagination means it's going to live on a lot longer than it would have during it's one week of internet glory.
If so, too bad.
Because you're not going to see it.
Thanks to Nike.
Turns out, there were at least two cameras rolling Monday night when Crawford dunked on James during a pick-up game here at the LeBron James Skills Academy. It was a two-handed jam, the kind that would've circulated quickly on YouTube. But Nike officials eliminated that possibility shortly after the dunk happened by allegedly confiscating tapes from various cameramen.
Freelance photographer Ryan Miller was one of the cameramen shooting the game.
He told CBSSports.com that Nike Basketball Senior Director Lynn Merritt took his tape.
"He just said, 'We have to take your tape,'" Miller said. "They took it from other guys, too."
Worth noting is that there is no policy against filming at the LeBron James Skills Academy, and Miller said he had been filming all day without incident. Nobody ever told him to stop. Nobody ever said there was a problem ... until after Crawford dunked on James.
Of course, would MJ in his prime, right where LeBron is now, have been big enough to let himself be shown up by a supposed nobody? I'm hesitant to say - we all know the stories of Michael's competitiveness and the assaults he would let out in frustration on teammates and opponents alike. Those were especially controlling during his younger, more formative days in the league. So I can get why LeBron's got just a little too much pride to let word spread about how some amateur dunked on him, but by sending in the goons to destroy the evidence he's now created the myth of "this dude who dunked on LeBron", and it's gonna spread faster and hang around longer than any viral video would have via YouTube.
I just can't close my eyes and imagine how it would've been so brutal anyway. What, if Garnett scales the castle wall next season is LeBron gonna go up to an ESPN cameraman during the timeout and demand they erase the tapes? I think the biggest question that should be asked is why would Nike go along with this? How did you fail to see an opportunity here? Pass this thing off as another installment of the HyperDunk series (you know, like how Kobe jumped over an Aston Martin?) and the thing would sell like hotcakes - Wear the shoes and YOU TOO can get mad air over King James!. They wouldn't even have to make some laughable attempt to convince us it wasn't CGI, because according to plenty of people who were there it really happened. Of course, apart from the obvious reason that Crawford's amateur status makes any attempt at marketing the moment a NCAA investigation waiting to happen (and spare the NCAA competency jokes for a better cause. They may be playing the part of the piano player in the brothel where Reggie Bush is concered, but they love a good violation that walks up and introduces itself like this one would), the real handcuffs appear to be coming from a player who might just be too image conscious for his own good.
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