Decisions, decisions.

Thank God for football right? Image from The Daily What.

Where were you when LeBron James made The Decision? I sure hope in 10, 20, or 30 years no one will ask me this. But I have a feeling someone will… (Let me document it now – I was sitting in Columbia University’s East Campus dorm, room 1210, illegally streaming ESPN on my Apple laptop and simultaneously watching So You Think You Can Dance, no judgement please).

This is my decision on The Decision: it was the most hyped hour of television (Lost was two plus hours, so don’t say I’m wrong) of my life, it was the most disappointing hour of television of my life, and it was the longest hour of television of my life. I placed a bet LeBron would announce at 9:03 he was staying with the Cavs – now you see why I feel the way I do. Thank God the bet was only a few bucks (and it was a bet NO ONE in the pool of sports journos won, that’s saying something).

But I’m just a fan (interns lack credentials, therefore I get fan status), and, sadly, in the sports world, the fan’s opinion matters less and less each year. So whose opinion does matter? The pros of the media and NBA. Here is what some of them thought about the lasting legacy of The Decision…

About LeBron:

In no way does Jordan join a superstar like Wade. LeBron doesn’t have the competitive fire to even be mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan. – Bleacher Report

James is a genius for what he engineered with Wade and Bosh. – FanNation

LeBron played with fire – unnecessarily. – PR Inside

James’ team isn’t saying how much in total was raised, but Maverick Carter, CEO of LRMR, did say on Thursday afternoon that more than $2 million in net proceeds will go to the Boys & Girls Club of America. Vitaminwater and Nike also contributed in the charitable effort. – CNBC.com

Everybody can say what they want — it was the wrong decision, there was too much hoopla, whatever — but for me it  was about doing the event, getting the advertisers to participate and doing it for charity. – Ad Age

About ESPN:

ESPN has just sent a message to CAA, IMG, Scott Boras, etc., that they are OPEN FOR BUSINESS! for ‘news’ announcements. – NY Daily News

It was a ratings hit, so don’t be surprised if we see more packaged programs of free agents announcing their next stop in prime time. – USA Today

I’m keeping my 2 yr old up to watch the LeBron James Special. I want her to see the exact moment our society hit rock bottom. – Sports Illustrated

About the NBA:

The face of the NBA has now turned into one of the biggest villains in sports. Things could not be worse for LeBron’s image right now. – Bleacher Report

For the first time in league history, players themselves, not an owner or general manager, put together a championship team. – FanNation

Here is the thing about opinions – everyone is entitled to one, and usually no one opinion is right or wrong. But I think in this situation there will be an evident right and wrong (dependent on multiple factors including if LeBron gets rings, how other players handle their free agencies, if ESPN starts dishing out hour specials, etc.). Problem is, no one will be able to see this evidence for years to come. And by then – who really cares? There is no need to have an ultimate decision about The Decision. LeBron will still be a talented basketball millionaire, and we will all still be willing witnesses of whatever court the King decides to hold.

Breaking the press.

Ready for another sports post and the randomness (fashion, college, journalism, pretty pictures) that is my blog… well here ya go.

Kobe Bryant has learned how to beat everyone in the NBA and, after seeing this, I am pretty sure he has perfected his game against the press too. I love sports and I love sports media, if you do too then you will love this video. Thank you NBA.com for breaking down the way Kobe breaks down the press.

(video on NBA.com and YouTube)

Be excellent to each other.

When you combine the internet and an obsession, scary things can happen.

Point in case: Bieber.

Justin Bieber fans are a force to be reckoned with. They travel across the country, spend every dime of their savings, and camp overnight in the snow for just one glimpse of the teen hearthrobe with the southern swoosh haircut. And though fans love the innocent appeal of Bieber, they themselves are not always innocent. Riots, fights, and hysteria often result when one too many rambunctious Bieber-ites get together. Fans even sent death threats to Kim Kardashian when pictures surfaced of her spending the day with the Bieber boy just a few years (cough-cough, 13) her junior.

The internet was also one of the “victims” of Bieber mania. Fan sites, social media accounts and word of mouth promotion saturated the web with Bieber news, Bieber love and Bieber lore. Twitter was forced to reconfigure how it ranked trending topics because his name name never left the top ten and Fire Fox created an application that offered users “Shaved Bieber”  - a tool to filter Justin Bieber from newsfeeds and search results. Sorry Justin, I guess not everyone wants to know when you wake up or when you excuse yourself to use the restroom.

So are there cases in which the internet and obsession has been combined for good and not for insanity (let’s be honest this site or this site really are a bit insane)? Surprisingly I found the answer pretty simple, yes – sometimes the relationship between internet and obsession can actually be entertaining in a good way.

Case in point: C’mon Lebron.

Living in New York, it has been difficult to ignore the cultural obsession the c’mon Lebron campaign has fostered. Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James is shopping for a new NBA team – and the team that gets him is sure to make money, gain popularity, and, of course, also earn a few more wins next season. So NYC decided to use a multimedia, multi-market, and multifaceted campaign to get The King’s attention. Lebron Buttons calculate how many people “like” the idea of Lebron playing in New York. You can go to nycheartslebron.com and use your mouse to “push” the button, place a hashtag and c’mon Lebron (#cmonlebron) in a tweet, or physically go punch one of ten buttons placed in locations throughout Manhattan. Not only has the campaign sparked conversation throughout the country, but it has sparked action too. As I type, over 1.2 million people have “pushed” the c’mon Lebron button and if you type c’mon Lebron into  google you get about 5.1 million news hits.

Another case in point: Keanu Reeves.

Keanu Reeves? Oh you mean the guy from Matrix and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Yeah, THAT, guy.

A picture recently surfaced in a tabloid of Keanu Reeves sitting alone on a park bench. He was probably simply resting or waiting for someone, but instead people decided that the actor was sad. So instead of simply talking about it, fans took to the web. Check out the Keanu Reeves facebook page called Cheer Up Keanu Day – it has over 14,000 “likes”. Reddit.com even has a page full of reader submitted photoshopped creations that take the park bench picture and give Keanu a friend to sit next to and a blog called Sad Keanu has just about everything related to this crazy web obsession. All of the attention is shockingly not mocking and the actor even commented in disbelief about all the attention telling his fans not to worry about him and that he thinks the sites are entertaining and in good humor.

So to sum this (extremely) long post up I will use the words of Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – “Be excellent to each other.” That is what the internet and obsession CAN be if one treads the line close enough, excellent to each other.