Ad Disclosure
LeBron’s Decision May Already Be Made: Let’s Talk the Miami Heat YouTube Leak Situation
By Matt Schultz
Published:
In the twenty hours since I last wrote about where LeBron James might play next year, there have been a few big developments. Here they are:
Miami Heat’s YouTube Posted a Video Last Night (Tuesday) Titled “LeBron James Introductory Press Conference”
This is very funny. Whoever runs the Heat’s socials messed up big time here. I can’t help but enjoy that. There’s something about seeing someone else be bad at their job that always makes me feel pretty good, in an at-least-I-never-fucked-up-that-bad-at-work type of way.
The Heat Say This Was a Mistake Made While Preparing for a “Possible Signing”
What else are they going to say? Of course they’re gonna play it off like they were just getting ready for a “possible” outcome – but that doesn’t mean anyone’s going to believe them. The consensus online seems to be that this thing’s pretty much a wrap and LeBron’s heading back to South Beach. It’s a strong theory. It makes a lot of sense. It’s by far the most smoke there’s been for any one team so far, and when there’s smoke… there is fire… Which gives off… Heat… Yes…
And the market seems to agree:
Kalshi Now Has LeBron Going to Miami at 50%
The Heat’s chances have jumped almost 20% since yesterday. That’s some major movement. People really seem to think this thing’s a done deal. Personally, I’m not sure I really buy it. I’m not saying that LeBron for sure isn’t going to the Heat – he still could, of course – but I don’t think this social media blunder makes it all that much more definite. What if the Heat are telling the truth about what happened? Couldn’t that be the case? It could happen! Most social media managers are like 24 years old. I could see a dumb kid setting up this template early on the off chance LeBron picks Miami and then accidentally publishing it. Stuff gets posted by accident all the time. Maybe the social media person thought getting the template ready was them being good at their job/thinking ahead. That seems plausible.
Although, I’m realizing right now, that argument kind of falls apart when you remember the video included a date. July 27th. That seems fishy. That takes this beyond “Lemme just get a template set up” and into “I know this announcement is coming and this is the day we’re doing the press conference” territory. Maybe this is actually a done deal… Shit…
But hold on. It’s not over til it’s over. Let’s think this out for a minute here: the Sixers are still a better basketball fit than the Heat. I still believe this. Now, let’s pretend he was planning on going to the Heat and this leak is accurate… couldn’t that make LeBron less likely to choose them now? Maybe this’ll make him want to zag, the way musicians do when their upcoming album gets leaked. When that happens, artists don’t just release what everyone’s already heard. They mix shit up! They change the track list. They rework songs. They go in a new direction. Eminem did this once:
So is Philadelphia at 10% still a decent bet? It very well may be… You never know…
Miami May Have Canned the Person Who Messed Up or They Are Conviently Looking for a New YouTube Person
RIP Miami YouTube Guy. Maybe. Good luck with the job search. You could actually probably put all this on your resume. This situation was good content. Whole thing went pretty viral. People hiring social media managers like that sort of stuff.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com