LeBron James revealed his latest decision on Tuesday and most people were not amused to learn it was nothing more than a cognac ad. Count ESPN's Stephen A. Smith among those who were unimpressed with what was billed as the "Second Decision." Asked by Peter Schrager on Wednesday morning's edition of First Take what he thought of the stunt, Smith called it both "corny" and "cringy.
"If you look at The Decision (when James announced in 2010 that he would be joining the Miami Heat) and the manner in which that was handled and the way it served to alienate folks back at that time," said Smith. "You would think that he wouldn't want to remind people of that considering the heat he took from that and unfortunately, he was tone-deaf and that's not the decision, that's not the path that he took. This was corny as hell, it was cringy. It was all of that. We know this. You're promoting an alcoholic beverage and trying to give people that this could be your final season, that you might end up retiring."
"I don't understand why the second-greatest player who ever lived ... would stoop to try and garner attention for himself with something other than trying to win a damn championship."@stephenasmith shares his thoughts regarding LeBron James' "Second Decision" 👀 pic.twitter.com/nJbCF336LA
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 8, 2025
While Smith makes some very valid points about how people felt about this decision, as well as the original, he also had to bring up someone saying that Michael Jordan would never have done something like this to sell Hanes.
The thing is, Jordan did do something like this to sell shoes when Nike ran an ad campaign in 1994 about Jordan faking his retirement so he could play in disguise under fake names. Steve Martin and multiple Nike athletes at the time were involved.
The obvious difference is that the Nike ads were pretty sweet and there was no way that a sequel to The Decision ever would have worked as real announcement, ad or in any other capacity. In this case, LeBron never stood a chance.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Stephen A. Smith Calls LeBron James's Second Decision 'Corny' and ‘Cringy'.
