Monday Frowndup: Featuring MORE LeBron Summer Camp Dunktapegate

Because, despite what so much of what's been written about it suggests, it’s a complicated issue. And if we in Cleveland don’t make sure it’s completely covered, who will? So, consider the latest trending “analysis” of this issue, which involves an allegedly similar incident in which Michael Jordan played a part, and goes something like the following, from J.E. Skeets at Yahoo! Sports:

What's most hilarious to me, believing that LeBron and/or Nike did, in fact, demand the footage, is that if the concerned parties had just let "The Dunk" hit the Internet we'd have likely watched it a few times, blurted out a couple "oooos" and "aaaas," and then went right back to our spreadsheets and bake sales. So you got dunked on. Big deal.

Why am I so certain that would've been the general reaction? Because that's exactly what we did when some random mutual fund CEO beat Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one at the legend's high-end "Flight School" camp in Vegas, circa 2003. Big deal.

This is probably true, and simple enough, but there are two big problems with this analysis that get to the heart of the problem with so much of the criticism that LeBron and Nike have taken here:

First, consider that Jordan was beaten in 2003, after he had retired (and after he’d embarrassed himself in the Wizards uniform), at an adult fantasy camp that those CEOs payed big bucks to attend. You think those CEOs might not want to pay even bigger bucks for next year’s camp knowing that there’s a chance that they might become known as the next one to do Michael like that?

Now consider how different this is from LeBron’s Skills Academy, which was no retiree-fantasy camp, but rather a place for NBA players and prospects to train in the off-season. It makes a lot of sense, per Henry Abbott via WFNY, that: “[w]hen NBA players scrimmage in the summer, it’s off the record,” because it makes a lot of sense that these guys would want a reasonably private environment for this kind of off-season training where they won’t have to worry that a videotape of it might go viral.

But, the argument goes then, that LeBron is different, and he or Nike should have made an exception in this case, because, as Skeets no doubt correctly notes, all that would have happened was that “we’d have likely watched it a few times, blurted out a couple “ooos” and “aaaas,” and then went right back to our spreadsheets and bake sales.” But the point here is that, especially at the time the tapes were confiscated, it couldn’t possibly have been such a simple decision to let us have our “oooos” and “aaaas,” because in doing so, they’d be turning these off-season scrimmages into something else. A decision to let this tape out would have ramped up the incentives for future photographers to attend the camp (with smaller and smaller cameras), while at the same time decreasing the incentives for the ballers to do the same.

In a way, if it went down like they say it did, LeBron and Nike might just as well have been guaranteeing their summer camp customers a certain service. Initial reactions to the report of the tapes’ confiscation that attempt to paint this issue as black-and-white, and efforts to analogize this situation to a retiree-fantasy camp hosted by Jordan, disregard any potential value of such a service, and the reasonable expectation of privacy that it requires, showing further that so many were too quick to throw rocks at the throne here.*

Also note, from WFNY Scott's nice roundup of last Friday that  

"the game that featured said two-hand slam was played to the finish - with James’ team (Tarence Kinsey, Danny Green and Christian Eyenga as teammates) actually winning. They then played another game to the finish, and went to drink water. It was after this time that Lynn Merritt allegedly asked for the tapes from the two individuals that had recorded the off-record game."

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As for the rest today, let's head over to Shea Hey!, where Cannatar of 'Baseball and Booze' has joined the stable. Take a look at yesterday's post by Cannatar on MLB competitive balance that picks up on our Wedge/Shapiro defense of last Monday and you'll see that he's undoubtedly a worthy addition:

"It may or may not be easier to build a dynasty in other sports, but the issue is whether those dynasties are the result of inherent unfairness resulting from the league's rules (or lack of rules). I think the payroll disparity in MLB speaks for itself - unless we think all these teams are getting no value for their money, it's obvious that certain teams have a large advantage. Shysterball and Coachie both also pointed out the obvious examples of small-market teams who have had recent success, but just because teams like the A's and Rays have had success doesn't mean that we should ignore the disadvantage that they and all the other poor teams are fighting against."

Read the whole thing. Good stats there.

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And for further proof that the Shea Hey! gang isn't afraid to tackle controversial topics, check out the Sky Way v. Swenson's debate that Coachie touched off last week in the comments of this UniWatch post.

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Finally, for today, don't forget, the Cleveland Sports Blog outing is this Thursday night at Canal Park. We're looking forward to that, and all kinds of fun this week, including a LeBron 2010 exclusive coming tomorrow. Happy Monday.