Lebron James and Nike Prove My Point

Just the other day, I was talking about feedback.  I gave five reasons typically offered for why people don’t open the floodgates to customer/patron/user feedback, and explained why each of them was not valid.

And, as though on command, King James (that’s Cleveland Cavaliers basketball star and Nike pitchman Lebron James) proves my point.  Well, Lebron and Nike, in collaboration.

Here’s the basic story if you haven’t heard it (and you can read about it here and in a thousand other places).  Lebron James runs a youth camp and recently at his camp, a high school sophomore dunked on Lebron himself during a camp scrimmage.  That is to say, basketball god gets posterized by a high school kid.  It’s kind of humiliating, but it’s also part of the game.

It so happens that Ryan Miller, recent college grad and former ESPN intern, was filming, with permission, at the time and caught the mildly embarrassing moment on tape.  Shortly after the play, a Nike corporate representative, came up to Miller and demanded the tape, and after some moderate leaning on the kid, he gave it up.

The response was instant and universal, and can be summed up by the headline on this story: Lebron James is acting like a baby, Nike like Goons.

So let’s review what I said about openness the other day:

“2.  People will get a negative impression of us if they see the comments of others.”

Translate that to “if they see something bad happen” and it’s the very same idea.  Nike obviously thinks we’ll think less of Lebron James if he ever gets beaten on a single play.  That’s idiotic.  We KNOW he’s a great player, but even the greatest get beaten sometimes.

“5.  I want to control the conversation.”

Well, if NIke and the King wanted to control the conversation by snuffing out the tape, man, did they fail!  There’s a whole conversation going on, not about James getting dunked on, but about how petty and defensive he and Nike are.  And it is completely and totally out of their control.  They just have to hunker down and not say anything stupid until the damage is done.

And the whole thing makes it look as if…

“4.  I’m just too sensitive to hear criticisms of what we’re doing.”

To which I said the other day,

“Hmmm, then maybe being in Live Arts and Entertainment’s not for you because the way this business works is that you stand in front of people and do your show or play your game.  Not to be mean, but this is just a question of maturity, at whatever age you’re confronting it.”

How would it have been handled better?  Jay Mariotti at the site I linked above tells the story of a very similar occurrence happening to Michael Jordan.  Let’s just say he handled it better:

“…a certain John Rogers, CEO of Ariel Investments, beats [Michael Jordan] in a one-on-one game at [Jordan's] “Flight School” basketball camp. What’s funny is how Jordan opens with trash-talk — “Don’t be mad at me. I’m just too good for you,” — only to be schooled on three driving, twisting layups.

And how did the Greatest Player Ever respond to this professional embarrassment, which he knew was being taped? Oh, by hugging and congratulating Rogers, then willingly absorbing verbal abuse from comedian Damon Wayans while the other campers howled.

Wayans: “How do you feel about being humiliated in the game?”

Jordan: ‘You get dunked on, you get crossed-over. It all happens.’”

Wayans: “But at your own camp?”

Jordan: “Sure.”

Wayans, pointing to a portrait of Jordan hanging in the gym: “Take that picture down and put up Rogers right there!”

Let me ask you: after hearing the two stories, which player are you inclined to like more?  They’re both legendary talents, but one is a grown up who knows how good he is and the other is a child with a chip on his shoulder.

If your organization isn’t open in the same way to patron feedback, which one do you think you appear to be?

UPDATE:  I’m corrected that the player who jammed on Lebron was in fact a college sophomore, not a high school sophomore.  That doesn’t change the fundamentals of the story…in fact, it seems even more petty, since a college sophomore can be a darn good baller.  Of course, Lebron wouldn’t know that because he never went to college, which means that this guy posterized Lebron not just on that one play, but also on education.