For all of my adult life, ESPN has been a great spot for me to get my sports news and info. Its had reporters that love sports, and a splash of banter to keep it entertaining. Yet when you look right at it ESPN stands for Entertainment Sports Programming Network… If you break that shit down, 50% of it is Entertainment & Programming, literally in the title. This became ridiculously apparent that ESPN is the biggest hype machine in all of sports when they decided to air a special solely for letting LeBron James pick his new team.
Basketball is right near soccer in my interest level of sports for a majority of reasons. Unless the game is in a cartoon alternate dimension and Bill Murray happens to be around, I don’t really care. So to have an entire primetime special dedicated to Lebron James choosing a team he will play for is fucking retarded. It got so ridiculously hyped that they even had a flavored water commercial paying tribute to Lebron James and his “EPIC DECISION”. AAAAAAHHHHH, I want to cuss until my head explodes and shoot a hole in my TV! What the fuck is going on!?! And you know the little ticker that runs across the screen on certain channels, with late breaking news? During this shows commercial break, a ticker actually came across telling you that Lebron was on stage ready to make his decision. A TICKER NEWS BREAK, ABOUT THE SHOW YOU ARE WATCHING!!!! JESUS CHRIST I HATE THIS WORLD!
ESPN took a piece of news that should have been a news ticker during sportscenter, and made it into an hour long “licking Lebron James’ ass” special. ESPN duct taped sandpaper around a 20 inch dildo and rammed it into the asses and ears of people dumb enough to buy into this hype. Good reporting, solid journalist work, and reporting integrity were sacrificed all to get a big audience to tune into a bullshit special that wasn’t worth 5 minutes of my time, let alone an hour. The main concern behind this special, was getting people to tune in to advertisements for ESPN specials, and sports coverage like the World Cup and Homerun Derby. Delivering pertinent information, and providing a journalistic service took a backseat to this garbage and tarnished my views of ESPN forever.
Any executive or “brain” behind Lebrons special should feel dirty for the rest of their lives. ESPN clearly stated to me that entertainment and programming will trump sports and journalism at all times. I don’t consider myself a naive person, and realize any media outlet needs ratings to survive and profit. Yet to do it in this way is just disgusting, and any producer involved in this gag should be stoned in a public area with feces and rocks.
Ive been saying this about ESPN for years!! ESPN is whack! Im checkin out versus and other spots for sports. ESPN has evolved into MTV..
hey man they jumped on something they knew woudl get ratings. why you hatin?? Ive seen worse and watch what happens after he wins 10 championships, everybody wants to see someone out do jordan. Forget Kobe, its all bout Lebron
FUCKIN EH!!!
Its sports ENTERTAINMENT. ESPN isnt news any more, and its sad, but its not their fault they have to do what they have to to get ratings and stupid fucking people tune into this crap so they will keep doing it. Its too stupid for words.
Out of respect for and your article Mitch I promise to personally boycott and never watch ESPN again. That is assuming I ever buy another cable/satellite subscription.
I cant believe you actually watched this ESPN special. I have lost a lot of respect for you today my homeboy. I was watching the cooking channel, Giada what whippin up something in the oven. That was much more exciting.
FINALLY someone isnt just playing kiss-ass with LeBron James. When one player is bigger than the entire game, you know the game is the pinnacle of excess and bullshit. Basketball is a fucking circus now, I used to love the playoffs between Lakers and Sacramento but even then it was still a showboat game. Its just gotten pathetic at this point. Great article, ESPN isnt totally to blame its the basketball culture. Did you know LeBron James’ marketer is the one who presented the idea to ESPN?
No sir Mr. Dusty I did not know that. But thanks for the info. Definitely fits how I felt about this crap.
This was the biggest joke on television. If Lebron has just announced on a press Conference that he was going to Miami, there wouldn’t be such a backlash on lebron. The simple fact is the great players choose to stay with their teams and make the players around them great. Lebron the so called King, choose to go to Miami and have Wade lead because he is no king, nor a prince, just a toad!! Just waiting, for his king Wade to give him a little kiss. In the end lebron you are not worth of the hour show you put on and shame on America for actually watching the program. You’re only giving in to the hype, LBJ hope you guys lose next year which you will.
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
Did you know the guy Gray that did the interview with Lebron got paid. Yes he got paid by Lebron he says its a small stipen to cover cost lol, but seriously ya right why do you think it dragged on for a half an hour before he said where he was going. Paid reporters hahaha what a joke. Oh and FYI Lebron Did this to say FU to cleveland on national tv, AND NO he didnt go to MIAMI for less MONEY. He actually did a sign and trade with the cavs and miami, so hes getting the most he could get because he knew the cavs would want to get something out of him. Their is no Income TAX in Florida so he will be making even more money. Lebron you will never be one of the greats cause you just sold out, not cause u left cause the way you did it.
What the fuck!? Damn Niema.. thats some bullshit. Screw Lebron. I dont even like basketball for fuckwads like this, but hey i dont like the game either.. So easy to criticize.
Thanks for the info though big NIema.
Just want to say what a good blog you got here! I’ve been around quite lots of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work! Well done, and all the best! Cheers
Awesome,I admire Miami! They are the best team in bball! We will never see another 3 headed monsterteam like this again! Go Bosh!