The saga is over; LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Not the Miami Heat.
It’s only notable now because, well, remember when the Heat set their introductory press conference with James on their YouTube channel last week? It was clearly an accident, and now that James joined the 76ers rather than the Heat, it’s also become obvious that this wasn’t some inadvertent early reveal.
So, how did this happen? What took place with that Heat staffer who made the mistake?
Heat Employee Tried To Get Ahead of Vacation With Pre-Scheduled LeBron James Post
Usually, the Heat, as an organization, have things buttoned up. Rarely are there leaks. So when they somehow published a future introductory press conference for James, eyebrows were raised.
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, a member of the Heat had been scheduled to take a vacation and was simply trying to “get ahead” of their work just in case James chose to return to South Beach. Yet, James’ camp found the whole story entertaining.
“Which is why the saga of the poor Heat staffer — who sources told ESPN had scheduled vacation for this week and was trying to get ahead of work that could come up if James indeed chose the Heat — was so amusing to Paul and the small group of people James confided in during his process,” Shelburne wrote.
Online rumors suggested that the Heat quickly fired the employee who made the mistake, but the job posting they have online had been posted since the beginning of July, before the press conference gaffe occurred.
Another league source piled on, also pointing out how comical it would be for James to have yet another press conference in the form of “The Decision 2.0.” Can you imagine them repeating the same mistake twice?
“‘Did anyone really think LeBron was doing a press conference?’ said another league source close to the process, pointing out James didn’t make his first appearance as a Laker until training camp in the fall of 2018,” Shelburne continued.
James took a lot of heat (no pun intended) the first time he publicly announced his free-agency choice on live TV back in 2010. Rich Paul and James weren’t going to subject themselves to the same type of criticism again.
There’s no word on when the 76ers actually intend to hold their introductory press conference with the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. But this time, it won’t be a mistake or the result of a staffer trying to plan ahead.
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