If the original “The Decision” of LeBron James was a fascinating demonstration of self -esteem, “The Second Decision” of Tuesday was by far the most creaky and cheeky thing he ever made in his otherwise superlative career.
Spoiler: It was an advertisement for an alcoholic drink.
When LeBron initially tweed on Monday that he announced “the decision of all decisions” Tuesday at noon, it plunged fans on social networks in a frenzy:
Does LeBron announce that this is his last season?
Observers with clear eyes knew that it was the most distant possibility, and the messages formulated consciously by the people around LeBron indicated that it would not be a retirement announcement. Occam’s razor did not prevent speculators from attacking tickets to seize tickets for the Los Angeles Lakers final, which argued at ever higher prices.
It left an advertisement or another marketing message like what we all looked at:
Maybe something about Amazon Prime Day? (Thank you to my colleagues from Wirecutter!) Maybe something about Apple or Beats? Maybe something with Nike?
By invoking “The Decision” – the famous and sadly famous television program announcing its leap into a free agency of its hometown of Cleveland in Miami, including the instantly memorable and memorable sentence “I will take my talents to South Beach” – Lebron placed the bar quite high in terms of cultural relevance, probably evoking the biggest NBA moment.
“The decision” pierced. Thirteen million people were attentive for the moment. It is more than the average TV audience of the NBA 2025 finals.
But it also made furious, with a wave of social videos showing people burning LeBron jerseys in the streets of Ohio. This night in July 2010 launched a whole hate industry against LeBron. LeBron knew that by referring to “the decision”, he raised Tuesday’s announcement in something with maximum emotional background for fans.
So, so that it ends up being … just an advertisement for an alcohol?
Meanwhile, the execution was just as delicate: in LeBron’s original tweet on Monday, he mentioned noon for his announcement. Around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Hennessy’s social network account published the video. A few minutes later, LeBron timidly republished Hennessy’s message with a few emojis. It was almost as if LeBron knew how much it was a failure.
(Small aside: I will never blame LeBron the opportunity to conclude another massive sponsorship agreement, which was surely the case. No more power for him! But I am mystified by the fact that he and his team thought that this marketing execution was a good idea. It had to be a very big check.)
If it is the last season of LeBron, will this possible announcement will now officially be “The Decision 3”, or will they bring back today’s failure in oblivion, as a series of film that nobody talks about? – I have the impression that this announcement is worthy of a level “decision” level.
A great public moment to announce the end of LeBron’s career would have been an appropriate complement to the original “the decision” which, in many ways, launched the modern LeBron that we have known during the 15 years that followed.
But that? Invoke a historical moment of sports culture as “The Decision” just to support a creaky and cheesy ad for Hennessy? (Imagine if Michael Jordan faxed a note “I’m back”, then the next page was spitting: “I’m back … to wear the new Hanes Boxer.”)
This kind of accumulation and disappointment is below LeBron. It’s below us all.
