If LeBron James\u2019 original \u201cThe Decision\u201d was a fascinating display of self-regard, Tuesday\u2019s \u201cThe Second Decision\u201d was easily the cringiest, corniest thing he has ever done in his otherwise superlative career.<\/p>\n
Spoiler: It was a liquor ad.<\/p>\n
When LeBron initially tweeted out Monday that he was announcing \u201cThe decision of all decisions\u201d<\/a> at noon (ET) Tuesday, it sent fans on social media into a frenzy:<\/p>\n Is LeBron announcing that this is his last season?<\/p>\n Clear-eyed observers knew that was the remotest possibility, and self-consciously worded messages from people around LeBron indicated that this wasn\u2019t going to be a retirement announcement. Occam\u2019s razor didn\u2019t stop speculators from slamming the ticket resale sites to snatch up Los Angeles Lakers finale tickets, which were lurching upward at ever-increasing prices.<\/p>\n That left an advertisement or another marketing message as what we were all looking at:<\/p>\n Maybe something about Amazon Prime Day? (Shout-out to my colleagues at Wirecutter<\/a>!) Perhaps something about Apple or Beats? Maybe something with Nike?<\/p>\n By invoking \u201cThe Decision\u201d \u2014 the famous\/infamous TV special announcing his free-agency hop from hometown Cleveland to Miami, including the instantly memorable and meme-able \u201cI\u2019m gonna take my talents to South Beach\u201d<\/a> phrasing \u2014 LeBron was setting a high bar for cultural relevance, bringing up arguably the most significant off-court NBA moment of the 21st century.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Decision\u201d transfixed. Thirteen million people tuned in for the moment itself. That\u2019s more than the average TV audience of the 2025 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n However, it also infuriated, with a surge of social media videos showing people burning his jerseys in the streets of Ohio. That July 2010 night launched an entire industry of LeBron loathing. LeBron knew that by referencing \u201cThe Decision,\u201d he was elevating Tuesday\u2019s announcement into something with maximum emotional baggage for fans.<\/p>\n Then, to have it end up being \u2026 just a liquor ad?<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the execution was equally awkward: In LeBron\u2019s original tweet Monday, he mentioned noon (ET) for his announcement. Around 10:30 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, Hennessy\u2019s social media account posted the video<\/a>. A few minutes later, LeBron sheepishly reposted the Hennessy post with a couple of emojis<\/a>. It was almost like LeBron knew what a dud this was.<\/p>\n (Quick aside: I\u2019ll never begrudge LeBron his opportunity to line up another massive endorsement deal, which this surely was. More power to him! However, I\u2019m mystified that he and his team thought that this marketing execution was a good idea. It must have been an enormous check.)<\/p>\n If this is LeBron\u2019s last season \u2014 and will that eventual announcement now officially be \u201cThe Decision 3,\u201d or will they ret-con today\u2019s dud into oblivion, like a movie sequel no one talks about? \u2014 I do feel like that announcement is worthy of a \u201cThe Decision\u201d-level spectacle.<\/p>\n A significant public moment to announce the end of LeBron\u2019s career would have been a fitting bookend to the original \u201cThe Decision,\u201d which, in many ways, launched the modern LeBron that we have come to know over the past 15 years.<\/p>\n But this? Invoking an all-time sports-culture moment like \u201cThe Decision\u201d just to support a cringy, corny ad for Hennessy? (Imagine if Michael Jordan faxed a note, \u201cI\u2019m Back,\u201d then the next page spat out: \u201cI\u2019m Back \u2026 to wear Hanes new ComfortBlend boxer-briefs.\u201d)<\/p>\n This kind of buildup and letdown is beneath LeBron. It\u2019s beneath us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If LeBron James\u2019 original \u201cThe Decision\u201d was a fascinating display of self-regard, Tuesday\u2019s \u201cThe Second Decision\u201d was easily…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":287459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3128,392,3141,3120,1260,1269,62,222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-287458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-opinion","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115340559315109949","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}