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UPDATED: You know that LeBron James hourlong primetime sports special The Decision tonight all about where he’s going to play next season? Well, it was not put together by LeBron James’ sports agency CAA. According to my Hollywood agency sources, Ari Emanuel of 
arch-rival tenpercentery WME was at one of the NBA playoff finals. Surely you’ve seen him at Laker games sitting in his look-at-me floor seats so courtside he gets drowned by the players’ sweat rivulets.
He began talking with LeBron’s manager Maverick Carter. (WME arranged the financing for LeBron’s documentary More Than A Game and with Carter sold it to Lionsgate.) Then sports announcer Jim Gray came over and suggested that LeBron do a TV show about the decision. (ESPN is now saying its execs were talking to LeBron’s manager about a decision-style show as far back as February during All-Star Weekend.) Emanuel immediately suggested that, instead of offering the show to a broadcast or cable network first, they package it by producing and selling ads for it themselves. The conversation ended on that note.
Carter talked to LeBron, and then Emanuel got a call from the manager telling him, ”Let’s go do this.” LeBron himself makes no money. 
Instead, all the sponsor dollars are being donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs Of America. I’m told the figure raised for the charity was $3 million, and Nike pledged to match up to another $1 million.
“Richard Lovett keeps touting how he supposedly reps LeBron James. But he did nothing on this deal. He doesn’t even know where the TV dial is,” Emanuel was boasting all today around WME. (Ari also was pitching his hometown of Chicago to LeBron, who chose Miami as expected.) Today I asked CAA why it didn’t produce the show for its client, and the agency responded, “We don’t represent LeBron for marketing. We represent his sports contracts.”
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A CAA assistant must have given that quote….marketing is how all athletes make the real money.
And did Ari donate his share to charity as well? Someone in the know please reply.
It is not even known how much ad revenue was actually generated. I have seen figures from 3 to 6 million. Only 2.5 was donated. It remains a bit unclear.
Yeah, but who thought of all the money going to the Boys & Girls Club? Therein lies the greatest of ideas. Wish we’d see more of that.
Just found out that the money was going to LeBron James Foundation and then onto the B&G Club. What’s up with that? Also, that Jim Gray talked to Dan Patrick about this on his radio show a coupla days ago.
its doesnt matter who brokered the deal, the “king” took the easy way out and thus may never be mentioned with the likes of MJ, FURTHERMORE, this just shows CAA’s top brass got out Endeavored, which is just a tiny glimpse of the next few years.
interesting considering CAA has the CAA Foundation http://foundation.caa.com/ … since it was benefiting the B&G clubs, why not bundle it that way? check out the Sports mission statement under the ‘how we do it’ tab.
Okay, it must be said: you are ON IT gurl!
wait, this “tv event” is turning into the biggest pr disaster in a long time. does wme really want to be taking credit for this?
Aside from the fact that I’ve seen cable access shows with better production values, this was one of the more awkward, unnecessary, and inexplicably morose presentations I’ve ever seen on a major network. Essentially blaxploitation, if that’s possible with a near billionaire. Wow.
Lebron is one of the biggest stars in the world, repping his sports contracts and not his marketing is extremely shortsided.
He lost most his fanbase by toying with the hearts of 5 major cities and winning fans on 1 city. O,and last night he proved why you need to go to college. The uneducated 25 year old self titled “king” can’t form an original sentence.
Not to nitpick, but Jim Gray is not employed by ESPN and it was incredibly difficult for James’s camp to get the World Wide Leader to allow him to conduct tonight’s interview, rather than someone in their employ.
What good is repping the sports contracts when they’re commissioned at around 2%?
LeBron snubbed his hometown in the most classless way imaginable tonight. No matter how much money was raised for charity, tonight was about stroking the biggest ego in sports history and rubbing Cleveland’s nose in his departure.
Interesting. TV’s still have dials?
Not sure I recall a bigger PR fiasco that wasn’t related to politics. Lets see, the client will go on national TV and announce his divorce and then name his new girlfriend in front of a bunch of kids. I’d think anyone associated with this would claim they had nothing to do with how it went down. Obviously Jim Gray was the key to all of this. He just lobbed one softball question after another. I think my favorite part was when LeBron finally said Miami. You could just feel his brand melting away when not a single kid applauded his decision. I pick Miami…. and crickets.
Yup. He just destroyed his chance at becoming the Billion Dollar Basketball player. NY(#1 TV market 7.5M) or Chicago(#3 @ 3.5M) were the only two cities, that were shopping, that would have not derailed that goal. The Lakers (#2 @ 5.7M) of course would have put him into his goal but they weren’t shopping. Cleveland is too small of a market for that to happen, true. That said Miami isn’t a significantly larger market, when you look at the other cities. It is only a bigger by about 40k-50k, not any where close to the big three. Even with its higher affluence, not enough $$ to offset the destroyed goodwill that this little program just destroyed.
To mix metaphors. If you are going to burn bridges, make sure that the grass is a lot greener on the other side.
Going to have a blast this afternoon, the Friday after his announcement, listening to the Cleveland sports talkers try to keep from getting fined for callers cussing out Mr. James on air.
You don’t have to be in a big market to become a commodity of that size. Sure, it doesn’t hurt, but LBJ was doing just fine endorsement-wise. How about Peyton Manning? You think Indianapolis is even Top 20 when it comes to TV markets? No way.
You got it wrong, he fucked his new girlfriend while his wife watched and found out on TV. CAA should be laughing that Ari actually decreased LBJ’s value, not increased it.
In that case, I’m re-assured that I’m a caa client and not with WME. Because any agency/agent that would take pride in staging such an unfiltered indulgence in narcissism that surely diminished the value of the LaBron James brand in such a staggeringly short amount of time is not one that I’d want managing my career.
some of the biggest sports radio guys are calling this a total jerk off. Ari has floor seats, but does he know sports???
I thought the whole upside of being represented by an “entertainment” agency was that they handle these types of deals. Whats the upside of being at CAA if they just do what other sports agency do?? On another note Miami was a horrible choice–say good bye to any good will LeBron had towards him.
dear wme, please, please stop using that hideous and unprofessional logo.
WME will continue to skullrape CAA into 2012, especially since this deflationary economy will cause further shrinkages/consolidations in the percentary (and the whole entertainment) business.
Ari & company know these wider trends and are preparing for them. CAA rests on its laurels.
Initially, I thought the “Decision” television special was a mistake but let’s look at it from another perspective. ESPN has been “pimping” LeBron’s decision for the last 6 months. Give LeBron’s camp their props. Folks were gonna watch anyway and ESPN. I’m glad he flipped the script – he made them (ESPN) march to the beat of his drum and raised $5 million plus dollars for CHARITY! And for the record, the dude should be able to play wherever he wants to play.
To the owner of the Cleveland Cavs: You’re a low class piece of sh$t. LeBron played for your crappy team in a crappy city for 7 years. He decides to leave – which is his right – and you call him “spoiled, disrespectful and narcissistic?” Way to go buddy! Way to stay classy.
WME or CAA… who cares. That’s what they do.
First of all the BOY’s and Girl’s club should not of allowed this, no matter how much money they recieved. I would think that the BGC would have thought a little higher than than looking at the money. I just can’t imagine teaching these kids on national tv how to disrespect the fans, which bought his merchandise, The city of Cleveland, previous employer and all of his sponsors, to teach these young minds to do things publicly, instead of behind closed doors. That was the wrong message to send to these young minds. The boys and girl’s club president should have appoligized to the public for letting this happen. I as a business owner will never give another donation to the BGC. Sorry kid’s, but that is not what it is about. It should have been thought out better, not the sneaky tasteless way the so call King did it.
If this is how WME reps LeBron, if I were him I would run back to CAA. Aside from Tiger’s mea culpa, that was the single most awkward TV sports event I can remember. He looked like he was about to announce he had nut cancer.
He should never have been allowed to damage his image like that. Will take years to get the majority of sports fans back on his side.
I think he got poor advice from Ari Emanuel/WME. To promote short term “gain” with PR pain (for LeBron)-was it worth a package? …me thinks not. This goes down as a bad PR move for LeBron’s career as he alienated fans and future marketing deals by shoving it in the faces of his hometown and other cities in contention. He showed no compassion or thanks for all who have supported him along the way -his marketability will take a hit for a while- can bounce back if they win. Could have been handled so much bettter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why doesn’t Ari spend a little time and effort on his own clients rather than spending 24/7 on signing? The press event was ridiculous and terrible for the nba–there’s definitely a backlash against Lebron now among kids who smell insincerity.
If I am CAA, I am laughing at this amateur baloney and thankful the epic fail was on the watch of Endeavor and LRMR (Lebron’s marketing agency). Where were the real sports minds at WME?? Probably laughing behind Ari’s back!
So many negative comments about the LBJ Announcement. Despite the glitz and glam of the industry, LeBron did the Girls and Boys Club of America a great financial service and told the world publicly where he was going. Let me repeat that – he gave away all the money and let everyone know at once where he was going. In any other world – this would be considered – honorable. However, in your selfish, egotistical, I can’t get a piece of the action world, it is anything but. And you want us to believe that you have the fans and LeBron’s interest at heart. Yeah, right. LeBron, I can’t wait to see you play in South Beach and I look forward to your championship ceremony!
why some clown worried about weather labron james cant speak english, when they can’t do basic math and count all his money ?