After LeBron James’s 22-season run, he is one of the best players ever to play in the game. Drafted in 2003 as the first pick in the draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, he played on their roster until 2010 when then announced “The Decision.” He shocked the world by leaving Cleveland and, according to LeBron in 2010, “Taking his talents to South Beach.”
James then won two championships with the help of Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. In July of 2014, he then went back to The Land (Cleveland) to win a championship in 2016 with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. In 2018, James then joined the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster deal, signing a four-year contract. He is still on their roster today.
On Monday, October 6th, James posted an image online of himself sitting down in a chair titled “The Second Decision,” with the caption “The decision of all decisions.”
Within minutes, this announcement took over all of the sports apps, with fans speculating that the last time he did this, he ditched the town he grew up in and left his fans devastated.
In the post, fans noticed that James was wearing the same outfit that he wore in 2010 during his first decision: a red plaid shirt with a white undershirt and jeans. At that time, fans saw this and predicted he would be retiring, or coming back to Cleveland, or waiting for his second son, Bryce James, to come to the league before his career ends.
Fans anticipated this week that he would be coming back to Cleveland, or South Beach, or retiring.
With James being loved by many fans from around the world, this choice would be known immediately, like his first decision was. This caused a lot of emotions in the basketball community and a lot of wild predictions.
“I predict that LeBron will retire, it’s his 23rd season,” said basketball player and fan Taj Ray-Hassan (‘28). “And he wore jersey number 23 for a lot of his career, I think this would be a perfect time to retire.”
I thought that this prediction is a great guess because the number 23 has been a well-known symbol in his career, as well as the number 6.
“I predict that LeBron is going to Cleveland to finish his career,” said fan Conner Bundles (‘27).
At noon on Tuesday, James’ final announcement came out: he was “Taking his talents to Hennessey V.S.O.P.”
It was just an ad.
This fooled the whole sports industry, and this led to a lot of upset fans and disappointment around the “Second Decision.”
I think that what James did for the advertisement was a smart way to bring attention to the brand. The only downside is that it was something that most sports fans wouldn’t care about as much as a large trade or his retirement. People found it upsetting and disappointing.
Was this a smart way to bring attention to his sponsor, or was this a way to mess with fans by mocking his first decision?
