It’s been 10 years since LeBron James changed the landscape of the NBA, how athletes conduct business, and also how the media works with those athletes to tell their stories. Today marks the 10-year anniversary of LeBron James and ESPN’s airing of “The Decision,” an idea hatched by media executive Ari Emmanuel, longtime journalist Jim Gray and LeBron’s business partner/trusted friend, Maverick Carter.
The proceeds of the event were given to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and while it was widely reviled in its time, mostly due to the execution of the event more so than the actual action, it set the blueprint for James and his business partners to expand their platform, as well as a blueprint for other athletes to chart their own paths to business success outside of the lines.
It also created a new form of sports media, with players being tellers of their own stories. LeBron’s UNINTERRUPTED and the Player’s Tribune popped up shortly after this, as athletes not only realized they could tell their own stories but get paid good money to do it. Also, the NBA under Adam Silver has taken a direction in tone from predecessor David Stern, approaching players as business partners rather than employees.
With The Decision, Carter and James leveraged LeBron’s celebrity into a moment that, while in the short term turned public opinion against him, made him even more famous than he already was. That fame has been parlayed into almost anything, whether it be free airtime on the world’s biggest sports network, office space on the Warner Bros. lot, or a 2% stake in the Liverpool Football Club at literally no cost. It was a turning point for LeBron in using his platform not only to advance his narrative but to financially benefit from doing so.
There is no question that without The Decision, much of what James and his business partners have accomplished likely would not have come to fruition. It was shortly after that move that Rich Paul became LeBron’s agent and now Paul is moving away from day-to-day agenting, focusing on being the CEO of Klutch Sports, with burgeoning football and baseball divisions alongside their stacked NBA clientele.
10 years on, the legacy of The Decision is still playing out.
