3 of the most embarrassing moments in Cleveland Cavaliers history
By Chad Porto
LeBron James goes full Men in Black and tries to delete a dunk from reality
Let’s say you saw something you weren’t supposed. You start telling people it happened, hyping up the story, and then, out of nowhere, people approach you. No, they aren’t the Men in Black, not this time, but it’s LeBron James and some Nike reps. Come back in time with me to 2009, when LeBron James was taking part in a pick-up game of basketball at one of his mini-camps at the time.
Jordan Crawford (no relation to Jamal Crawford but is related to Joe Crawford, all NBA players), was a sophomore at Xavier University at the time. The two men were hooping as you do and with a sizeable audience in attendance, saw Crawford, a non-prospect at the time of the pickup game, dunk on the league’s then-uncrowned king.
James was so irate about the incident that he demanded Nike go and confiscate all of the footage of the dunk, as it made him look bad. But not as bad as he made himself look by going out of his way by attempting to erase the moment from history. Word got out that Nike was working at the behest of James to illegally procure all of the footage just to protect James’ image, and that subsequently backfired.
The footage still leaked, and because it was 2009, it’s barely viewable. Had James just downplayed the situation and never addressed it, it would’ve gone away with skeptics debating the validity of the tape.
Instead, he came off as a spoiled brat and made the Cavs look bad that the star of their franchise was strong-arming randoms because he got one-upped by a college kid. Imagine the insecurities you must have to be to think getting dunked on is the worst thing ever. Talk about a fragile personality.