Behind the Scenes of LeBron's "Decision"

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ten years ago, on live television, LeBron James made his now infamous decision to leave Cleveland and "take his talents to South Beach." It was one of the most consequential, most awkward, and most divisive moments in sports media history. The long, drawn-out broadcast drew ire from Cavaliers fans - who felt their homegrown star had betrayed them - and also from casual observers who disliked the idea of an athlete wielding that level of influence. So how did "The Decision" actually come to be? Ahead of this Sunday's new episode of "Backstory," Don Van Natta takes us behind the production, introduces its key players, and examines how the event forever changed the way NBA stars interact with the public. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If he had proper people around him, they would never allow him to do this.
0:07.7	He's a 25-year-old kid who had a bad idea.
0:10.8	It was the bachelor.
0:11.8	I was waiting from the hand Miami arose at the end.
0:14.8	I think a lot of people have that feeling like, ooh, this doesn't feel good.
0:19.5	We love you in Cleveland.
0:20.8	How could you do this to us?
0:33.4	It's been 10 years since LeBron James went live on ESPN
0:36.9	and made his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and take his talents to South Beach.
0:42.8	It was one of the most divisive, awkward, and ultimately consequential moments in sports media history.
0:49.9	But how did such a spectacle actually come to be?
0:53.4	Today, ahead of the latest episode of Backstory, ESPN's Don Van Nanna takes us behind the scenes of the decision, from LeBron's camp to inside ESPN, to its ultimate legacy as a moment that changed the way athletes control their own story forever.
1:09.7	I'm in times.
1:11.0	It's Friday, June 26th.
1:13.1	This is ESPN Daily, presented by Marathon.
1:21.5	Hey, Don.
1:23.0	Hi, Mina.
1:24.4	Don Van Nata is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter
1:26.5	and the host of the ESPN series Backstory.
1:29.9	So, Don, we're here today to talk about the latest episode of backstory, which is about the
1:36.1	decision. Now, I'm not trying to old takes you, but I am going to walk you back to 2010 around the time of the
1:43.4	decision when you tweeted, quote, ESPN assists,
	...

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