Granger went with the very creative, and very hilarious ‘Euros smell’ tweet.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cringe. I mean, who doesn’t like a good, “you smell” attack, but do we really need to do it when you are representing Team USA?

Then again, asking Danny Granger to use his better judgment might be asking a little too much. This is the same guy who wanted to build a Bat Cave. Not a bat cave, a Bat Cave; the kind that Batman works in. He wants to spend his money on building a superhero lounge. Is Larry Bird going to build a Fortress of Solitude?

Here’s the deal. You stop saying people smell, and you can keep the Bat Cave. The Bat Cave only reflects poorly on you and your economic sense (or lack of it). The “All Euros Smell’ tweet makes everyone look bad.

Someone go ask him about the metric system, let’s see if we can get really ugly!

Brinson did an interview with Harper’s Bazaar and in the piece James gets off the following, “A person like myself always needs a great sidekick and a person you can rely on no matter the circumstances. And she’s that. She’s got my back, and I love her for that.”

Is he talking about the woman who will be his children’s mother for their entire lives, or is he talking about a good shooting guard? Sidekick? Sideshow Mel is a sidekick. Ed McMahon was a sidekick. John Baker was a sidekick. The mother of your kids is NOT a sidekick.

If the nicest thing you can say about someone is that they ‘have your back’ you better be talking about your best friend in the Marines, not the mother of your kids.

Then again, would you really expect anything less? This is the same guy who talks about ‘taking his talents to South Beach’, not playing for the Miami Heat. This is a guy who took great pleasure in screwing an entire city on TV and a guy who wears sunglasses inside...at night.

Enjoy the rest of your life as LeBron’s ‘sidekick’ Savannah, because getting the call-up to full time teammate might not be coming.

Sidekick?

Is ESPN officially out of the reporting business? Have they decided that they are just going to be the “Entertainment Tonight” for sports: have pretty people on TV who report scores and run highlights? If so, I need more cleavage. Has ESPN become a glorified PR arm for Ben Roethlisberger, LeBron James, and Rick Pitino?

Those stories were not reported, under reported or buried. If it doesn't make the athlete look good, it doesn't run?

Did ESPN really get run over by a chump like Maverick Carter? Does he really have the juice to force ESPN to pull a piece that was unfavorable to his client? If he doesn’t have that kind of pull (and he almost certainly doesn’t), then who in Camp Lebron does? Nike? Vitamin Water? Who?

If you are a reporter at ESPN, what do you do now? I mean other than try to get a job writing for Deadspin or Yahoo!. What in the world is going on when the Deadspins of the world are the ones forcing a closer look at the ethics of journalism? They are forcing ESPN to respond. ESPN has long looked down their noses at sites like Deadspin, but now they are getting rolled because the bloggers are the ones doing the job right.

ESPN claims they pulled the story because Markazi didn’t identify himself and are setting up a scenario where Markazi will be the fall guy if LeBron's 'people' decide they are still angry.  Regardless of how they stack the deck, this is crap.

Everyone knew who he was and what he was doing there.  What... he was there because LeBron’s posse liked his company; because he was going to pull in women for the evening? Because Arash Markazi was good for their look? Of course they knew he was a reporter. And if they didn't know, they are even more stupid than imagined.  Some random guy is at dinner, in the club, next to the star, and no one asks, "Hey, who are you and what are you doing here?"  Of course they knew who he was.

What they didn’t know was that their act would play so poorly and that it would further damage what is left of Lebron’s brand. James and his crew probably thought a ‘Lebron bathing in hookers, booze and fools weekend’ would make him more popular and signed off on the whole thing. I find it incredibly unlikely that they didn’t know who Arash Markazi was or what he was doing there.

ESPN has made this a much bigger story than it ever needed to be. If they had let the piece run, everyone would have just nodded their head and said, ‘yep, Lebron James is a spoiled, immature, not very smart basketball player who is surrounded by even less intelligent “yes” men.' Lebron likes naked girls and is spending crazy cash. Not exactly news. But ESPN created an issue by dropping the story. This was a minor story gone major because ESPN was so concerned about making one of their “partners” look bad.

I speak of Dwyane Wade and his stupid comments regarding September 11th, 2001 and comparing a future Heat losing streak to another terrorist attack.

The comments were dumb, not malicious. The comments were out of line, but does anyone for a second think that he was actually disrespecting the dead of that horrible tragedy? It was a boneheaded comment, there was no master plan to denigrate the dead.

Dwyane Wade is a basketball player, a very good one at that, not a guy who uses words for a living or a guy who is paid to turn an elegant phrase. He was looking for an analogy and swung and missed.

I think everyone would be much better served to find out why he insists on spelling ‘Dwayne’ D-W-Y-A-N-E. That would be a much better use of everyone’s time and energy than beating the guy up for something he said without thinking.

His spelling is much more offensive than anything that came out of his mouth.

He so baldy damaged his reputation as an NBA alpha-dog, that he managed to get Michael Jordan to put down his cigar and 8-iron long enough to take a run at him.

Speaking at the "Lake Tahoe Celebrity Let’s Get Drunk; Gamble; Chase Women and Pretend We Are Doing It For Charity; Presented By Ben Roethlisberger; Classic, Jordan cracked King JaMEs for needing to run for cover with his superstar pals in an effort to win an NBA title.

“There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team. But that's ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."

Translation: Puss.

Ouch. Remember, JaMEs thinks so much of Jordan, that he lobbied the NBA to have ’23’ retired, ala MLB and Jackie Robinson’s ’42’. King JaMEs is shelving the 23 he has worn since high school, and trading it in for a ‘6’ out of respect for Jordan. And for all that, Jordan calls him a coward.

That’s what he was saying, plain and simple. I was a champion. Larry Bird was a champion. Magic was a champion. We tried to kill each other and I never would have rolled over and joined the guys who I competed against in order to get a few easy titles. LeBron needed to orchestrate a scam to get together with a real closer, a real champ, D. Wade, and then got another guy with a solid game, Chris Bosh, to come along for the ride as well. Wuss.

Of course Jordan wouldn’t have done what JaMEs did. Jordan was a killer, JaMEs is a follower, the best second option in the history of the game. JaMEs told the world he couldn’t get it done without the assistance of a real finisher so he ran and ‘took his talents to South Beach’.

JaMEs could end up winning multiple titles in Miami. He very easily could rack MVPs and become the ‘global icon’ he so desperately wants to be. But he will never be thought of as an all time great, with the same level of respect as that group of guys. MJ, Magic and Bird are killers, alpha-dogs. So are Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. Those guys will get respect reserved for true greatness, not just great skill.

Enjoy South Beach, LeBron.

But whatever skills he has physically, he is missing them mentally. He lacks character. He lacks vision, and perhaps more than anything else, he lacks leadership.

Leadership on the court to be sure. A leader, an NBA alpha dog, would never agree to go be a part of another man’s team. That’s Wade’s team. Always will be, no matter how many SportsCenter moments James has in Miami. Wade is a champion, Lebron is a sidekick. The best Scottie Pippen you have ever seen. Would Larry Bird have signed with the Lakers?

But his lack of leadership off the court is even more glaring. How did it get to this point? For a guy that wanted to be known for his business acumen, (HA!) how could he be so dumb? Did he take a nap when he was visiting Omaha to meet with Warren Buffet? Did he even go, or did he just say he was going so it would look good? Would he even know Buffet from a Hometown Buffet? Just another brick in the LeBron facade.

If he is his own man, like he claims to be, how did he ever sign off on that debacle last night? How did he ever agree to a format that would take him from one of the country’s most popular, well liked athlete, to a guy who is sharing space with the post-November 2009, Tiger Woods? The second he agreed to sit down for one hour TV show, he ran out of attractive options. No matter which team he chose, he was going to look bad. And boy did he look bad.

A bullet proof brand is now the sports equivalent of BP. During the show, when they finally got around to showing James, he looked ridiculously tense and uncomfortable. Even the children he and his team used as human shields didn’t help. He looked like he wanted to run out of the room and hide. He knew it looked horrible and that it was only going to get worse.

And then he started talking.

How did it get to that point? How did he never say, “Hold on. This is my life we’re talking about. You want me to go on TV and screw my hometown? Stick the knife in their backs in front of millions? That’s the pitch? For what? So everyone can hate me? So I can never go home again? OK, you are fired, you are fired, and you are fired. I don’t care if we were friends in 10th grade history, you’re an idiot and that is the worst idea since Kobe ordered room service.”

A leader would have done that. A man would have done that. Someone with even a basic level of self-awareness and human decency would have done that.

Instead, LeBron James is ‘taking his talents to South Beach’. For his sake, I hope the people advising him on his career are not the same ones who are managing his money. If they are, "The Decision" is going to just be a pre-quel to "The Auction".

Phil Knight needs to stage an intervention. Let the professional marketers make these calls, not the guys who he used to skip class with.

By Brian Beckner:

Well, are you happy? Don’t look at your shoes, you made it this way and it’s only going to get worse. Full disclosure: I didn’t watch LeBron James’ made for television “Decision,” but I’m just as accountable as the rest of you.

Don’t get me wrong, I am sickened by everything LeBron James. And not because he went out like a punk and hitched his wagon to an actual champion. That’s his prerogative, although it should be stated that this is not the move of a “superstar.” By agreeing to play second fiddle to Dwayne Wade, LeBron is telling everyone that watches NBA games that he doesn’t have the heart to lead. He’s not a champion. He’s not a leader. He’s just a guy. His last playoff series in Cavs gear showed you all you needed to see. He’ll leave the leadership to the real champions.

Remember that prior to this the NBA’s ultimate villain was Kobe Bryant whose biggest misdeed (aside from what he did in that hotel room) was orchestrating the ouster of the league’s most dominant player from his own team. He just didn't market it as a TV special. LeBron’s “Decision” makes Kobe look like the Mother Teresa. It takes a frightening level of arrogance and narcissism to make Kobe Bryant look sympathetic. But make no mistake, we created that monster too.

Turning his “Decision” into a televised rape of the city of Cleveland is just the worst part of a really bad guy, and that’s the part that’s your fault. What brings an individual to this point? How could someone so wealthy and powerful be so painfully ignorant? How could someone with LeBron’s means be subject to such a steady stream of crappy advice? Because we have exalted him to a place where he clearly does not belong. Think about it. This is a guy that’s had everyone’s lips stapled to his ass since he was knee high to a basketball. We allowed him to anoint himself the “King,” and we expect him to be humble? This is someone that has never heard the word “no,” and we expect him to be measured?

Selling your “Decision” as a national television event isn’t promoting your brand, it’s evidence of a personality disorder. LeBron James dragged his balls across the face of every citizen of the state of Ohio, and expected to be celebrated for it. That’s not hubris, it’s sickness. And we’re responsible. The blood is on our hands.

We live in a society where the gap between the athletes we admire and Joe Six Pack gets wider every day. The reason LeBron James doesn’t think twice about giving Cleveland the atomic sit-up treatment is the same reason Tiger Woods can lay an international sex swath that would make Wilt Chamberlain jealous. Athletes are above us, and we put them there. We floated these individuals on piles of our money to places that they obviously do not belong. Ben Roethlisberger is a rapist (this is my opinion, although if you read the police report from that time he raped that sorority girl that would also be your opinion), and he will draw an NFL paycheck for at least the foreseeable future. This is our fault. We encouraged this.

Somewhere in America there is an eight-year-old with mad ball skills, and shortly John Calipari will be in his living room with a letter of intent and the keys to a Cadillac. He will be glorified through his adolescence and ultimately rewarded with an NBA contract, shoe deal and skanks from coast-to-coast. He’ll stay at five-star resorts and be subject to adulation everywhere he goes. You’re going to buy his jersey, his shoes and tickets to watch him play. You’re going to bet on his games and yell at your friends that think some other kid is better, and he is going to hear you. Just don’t get pissed off when he shows up at your door for a turn with your wife. You made this monster.

With the amount of coverage, with the nearly universal consensus that Lebron James is only a few porn-stars short of Tiger Woods, there is really very little left to be said.

Bad guy. Selfish. Narcissist. Mean. Empty. Scared. Scottie Pippen.

OK, maybe I am the only one calling him the 21st century ‘No-Tippin’ Pippen’, but everything else has been said.

It was, more or less, exactly what we thought it would be, if perhaps a little worse. ESPN had anyone with even a moderate interest in sports tuned to their network (brilliant on their part, if a bit unseemly), and LeBron James proved to the world that he cares about himself and, essentially, nothing else. He’s an empty vessel. An other-worldly athlete without a soul. A spectacular performer without any connection to the audience he amazes. A bad guy.

Sure, there might have been a surprise or two. As bad as we all imagined the interaction between Lebron and Jim Gray would be, it was much, much worse. Jim, for the love of all things decent, stop trying to be cute. You are as funny as LeBron is sincere. Stu Scott sucked even more than we knew. At least we got that.

After all the hype, after all the ‘80%’ reporting, and all of the absurdity surrounding the hysteria of where a man will play basketball, I am left with one lasting image. One memory. One thought.

That thought being, Cleveland got screwed. I like Cleveland. Cleveland deserved better. They worshipped LeBron James. He was one of their own, or so they thought, so they were told by LeBron and his high school sycophants. Simply, they loved him.

For a moment, put aside the very reasonable question of what that tells you about a city and their fascination with a basketball player. Fact of the matter is, they got screwed. They cared, they loved, and for this they got done on national TV by a very bad guy who simply didn’t give a damn. Their priorities may be questionable, but their passion isn’t.  They gave and got nothing in return.

Cleveland, you deserved better. LeBron, you deserve whatever the universe can come up with. I hope it is something bad.

Kobe Bryant, the patron saint of bad guys who worship at the alter of themselves, never did anything as distasteful as hosting a TV show to announce which city will get to watch him not win championships. I am sure Bryant wishes that he had come up with it, but even his ego couldn’t fathom a one hour show about him and his free agency. LeBron did. The only thing keeping the absurdly self-titled ‘King James’ from being a worse person than Kobe, is that he can still order room service in a hotel without the local police being notified.

Lebron James does not care about winning. LeBron James doesn’t give a damn about Ohio or Cleveland, or anything not named LeBron James. The ‘show’ is a gigantic ego stroke, a way for him to make everyone fawn over him again. Only this time he doesn’t have to compete for airtime with guys like D. Wade or Chris Bosh.

All this show means is that LeBron. and his band of high school hangers on, have known exactly where he was going all along. LeBron made all of his faux suitors travel to Cleveland to kiss his ring, make their ridiculous presentations, just so he could be feted; just so he could be worshipped at a national level; just so he could show up every day in another vehicle and have people shout his name.  I know you didn't get to participate in the whole college recruitment thing, but this is pretty pathetic.

Some good does come from this. LeBron has shown his true colors. He has demonstrated that he cares about publicity and buzz more than minor trivialities like ‘winning’ and ‘character’. He cares about himself, money, himself, cars, himself, being the King, himself, selling Vitamin Water, himself, and oh yeah, winning.

LeBron James is just like the rest of them. Just because he smiles when he plays doesn’t make him Magic Johnson. Just because he can fly through the air doesn’t make him like Michael Jordan. Those guys cared about winning first and others things second. Yes, they loved themselves and loved making money, but the very first thing they did every day was try and get better to win more rings. Not LeBron. He wants to be on TV.

He’s just like the rest of them. Worse actually.