Some scoff at LeBron James turning the formal announcement of which NBA franchise will pay him his millions next season into a one-hour prime-time ESPN special Thursday. Because he has yet to earn a championship ring, they say he has not earned center ring in this circus that he and the media created. 
 
 Like so much of the chatter fueling and fueled by the saga of James' free agency — a distraction of late for even marginal basketball fans — this is just wrong. 
 
 As was the case in Game 5 of his Cavaliers' ill-fated playoff series against the Celtics, James isn't doing enough. 
 
 "The Decision," as ESPN and James' LRMR Marketing outfit have branded this 8 p.m. extravaganza, should be bigger. And there's no injury to blame this time, just not enough media savvy from people who no doubt think they're geniuses for figuring out how to embellish this as much as they have. 
 
 "This is unique, but it's unique because I think there's an insatiable appetite for LeBron," Norby Williamson, ESPN's executive vice president of production, told reporters. "People want to know." 
 
 News of James' choice may well leak out first without a spoiler alert. But "The Decision" promises to resolve the cliffhanger of whether James is bound for Chicago, New York, New Jersey or Miami, or will stay in Cleveland or decide he will play minor league baseball. 
 
 ESPN vows to cover James' big reveal to hand-picked interviewer Jim Gray as a news event it will supplement with analysis, reports and its own interview of James by Michael Wilbon. 
 
 In terms of spin, the James gang likely wants to placate jersey-buyers in cities where hopes of him wearing their team's colors will be dashed. And ESPN has allowed James' LRMR to line up its own sponsors with proceeds earmarked for the Boys & Girls Club of America. 
 
 But James, his marketing team and perhaps even the Boys & Girls Club would have fared better if he and LRMR had seized control of the drama from the start. 
 
 It's as if no one in James' camp watches "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette," which wouldn't be much of a franchise if ABC and the producers left it to others to let people know what was going on among the competing suitors and build interest for the final rose ceremony. 
 
 That's where — see if this sounds familiar — much airtime is milked out of finishing the dirty work of kissing off everyone but that special someone. (That final breakup usually comes after the show. Finding true love on reality TV is even more elusive than an NBA title.) 
 
 If James and company had been on top of this, his Web site would have tracked his whole courtship process. He could have kept an ad-supported video diary, including behind-the-scenes video of meetings with franchises. 
 
 Of more importance from a business standpoint, fans would have been invited to register to vote for their team and receive updates through e-mail and Twitter, creating a valuable marketing database. 
 
 Just one problem: James has owned the domain LeBronJames.com since 2002 but hasn't done much with it until recently. Until Tuesday, James also had not used Twitter to address the public directly. So much for a New Media offensive. 
 
 The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported its sources said a special had been in the works for months. But Williamson, who indicated he expected James' announcement early in the hour, said James' people approached ESPN only last week. 
 
 Let people complain this is all out of proportion to its actual importance. This whole story has been. But if news consumers are interested demonstrably in something, far be it for media hoping to remain viable to tell them to go look for it somewhere else. 
 
 Similarly, whenever Michael Jordan was given a golden opportunity to score, he rarely hesitated to take it. 
 
 This is something the player who hopes to become America's Next Michael Jordan is only starting to learn. 
 
 philrosenthal@tribune.com ||||| Tomorrow is the day LeBron James becomes the most unlikable person in the NBA, and perhaps all of American sports. I used to think he was okay a year ago. No more. He's the villain now. 
 
 It doesn't matter where he opts to go. If he goes to Chicago, he's a cocksucker. If he goes to Miami, he's a cocksucker. Even if he goes back to Cleveland, he's a goddamn cocksucker. He's a self-aggrandizing sack of shit, and ESPN is a bunch of pussy-whipped enablers for giving him a free hour of airtime tomorrow night and inevitably using 55 minutes of it to let Stu Scott give him a rimjob. 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 Look at what Kevin Durant did today. He signed an extension well before he could have filed for free agency, announced the signing, and then went back about his business. He didn't need all this dog-and-pony show bullshit. James does, and that means he's a dipshit. People have been kissing this man's ass SINCE FUCKING MIDDLE SCHOOL, and he still needs this hourlong AFI tribute special? Bullshit. BULLSHIT. 
 
 And I don't care that he asked ESPN to use the commercial airtime tomorrow night to go to charity. That's the most transparent use of charity for the sake of self-glorification I've seen since I saw some actor do it yesterday. "Hey ESPN, why don't you spend an hour kissing my ass? Oh, don't worry. We'll give the money to AIDS babies. That totally makes me selfless." No, it doesn't. 
 
 And FUCK YOU to ESPN for going along with this "Bonds on Bonds" redux. If an ESPN reporter found concrete proof tomorrow morning that James was going to Cleveland or somewhere else, do you think ESPN would let him run with it? FUCK AND NO. They'd stick him in a fucking Lucite box and throw him in the cellar until 10PM. They're the whoringest whores that have ever whored. I heard they offered LeBron's crew free blowjobs if he wins a title next year. Wilbon asked to blow him JUST A LITTLE BIT. Not much. Just a little bit. 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 LeBron is now the guy you openly root against. If he leaves Cleveland tomorrow night, he'll have needlessly strung along an entire fanbase and given them the middle finger by making their breakup spectacularly public. If he stays, he'll have spent two years cockteasing the rest of the world about going somewhere else when he probably never wanted to leave Ohio to begin with. There's no end result tomorrow that makes LeBron a sympathetic figure. He's already gone past the point of no return. He's a cocksucker. Fitting that his most memorable career moment will come when he doesn't even take a fucking shot. He's a guy that cares more about the end result of playing basketball – massive, unending adulation – than he does actual basketball. 
 
 I don't begrudge him that attitude. I'd be the same way if I were a basketball player. All I'd give a shit about would be what I make and where I'm drinking tonight. And I don't begrudge him the right to play somewhere other than Cleveland. It's Cleveland. It blows. There's nothing to do in that town except masturbate and cry. But there's a normal way of doing things, and there's the dick way of doing things, and making your own free agency a two-year drama capped off with an infomercial directed by Senor Spielbergo falls squarely in the purview of FLAMING FUCKING DICK MOVES. James is trying to bullshit the world into believing this whole process is some great entertainment he's lavishing upon you. It's not. It's a con. Right now, a lot of people aren't buying the shit this man is selling. And really, that's all LeBron James is these days: a fucking salesman. ||||| ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell discusses LeBron James signing a lifetime deal with Nike believed to be the first of its kind in the shoe and apparel company's 44-year history. (1:49) 
 
 Nike has signed Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James to a lifetime deal in what one source familiar with the negotiations said is the largest single-athlete guarantee in company history. 
 
 "We can confirm that we have agreed to a lifetime relationship with LeBron that provides significant value to our business, brand and shareholders," Nike said in a statement. "We have already built a strong LeBron business over the past 12 years, and we see the potential for this to continue to grow throughout his playing career and beyond." 
 
 A company spokesperson would not say how much Nike paid. It is believed to be the first lifetime deal in the shoe and apparel company's 44-year history. 
 
 "I'm very humble, man," James told reporters after Monday's practice. "It's been an unbelievable time for myself and my family, and I'm just grateful that Nike and [Nike founder] Phil Knight and everyone over there just believed in a skinny-old, skinny 18-year-old kid from Akron, Ohio, and I'm happy to be a part of such a great company." 
 
 Sales of LeBron James' line of Nike shoes are estimated to top $400 million for 2015. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images 
 
 A source close to the deal told ESPN that it easily surpasses the 10-year, $300 million deal Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant signed with the world's largest shoe and apparel brand last summer. 
 
 "LeBron and I have been in love and obsessed with Nike since we were kids," Maverick Carter, James' business partner, said Monday. "Having built a totally innovative global business with them has truly been a dream come true. We are so excited to be taking the business to an entirely new level. For LeBron, he's thrilled to know he's a Nike guy for life." 
 
 James commented on his affinity for the brand, how important his first Nike deal was and what the new agreement means to him. 
 
 "It meant a lot to me even when I signed my first deal just to be with Nike, and it means even more that they've given me this," James said. "It's like I said, very humbling and grateful, and I'm going to continue to do my job and represent the brand the best way I can, like I know how. Hopefully, people see that." 
 
 Carter will manage the deal, which was negotiated by Main Street Advisors' Paul Wachter, who also negotiated the deal for John Henry to buy the Red Sox in 2002 and represented Beats By Dre in its $3 billion sale to Apple last May. 
 
 Although other companies have negotiated lifetime deals -- Adidas has structured them with Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose and soccer great David Beckham, while Reebok has a lifetime deal with former Philadelphia 76ers point guard Allen Iverson -- Nike has never announced a lifetime deal before. 
 
 It's assumed that Michael Jordan has at least a de facto agreement for life. Nike acknowledged to its investors in October that the Air Jordan brand, which began in 1985, had surpassed $2.2 billion in annual sales. 
 
 Nike has made more versions of James' shoe than for any other athlete outside of Jordan, who is on his 30th Air Jordan. Both James and Nike's business has grown exponentially since 2003, when Nike signed James on the eve of the NBA lottery to a seven-year, $90 million deal, its largest athlete deal ever at the time. 
 
 Nike has made 13 versions of James' signature shoe, and annual sales in 2015 for his line are estimated to top $400 million. 
 
 Sources told ESPN.com that Nike and LeBron's negotiating team had discussions as to whether they should break LeBron's line out from the Nike basketball umbrella, but ultimately, it was decided against. 
 
 "We've done a great job of building my brand to this point here today," James said. "We want to just continue it. If it makes sense for us to have a 'Team LeBron,' or whatever the name will be, we'll take a look at it and we'll go from there." 
 
 When Nike signed James, it had just come off $10.3 billion in annual sales and had its first year selling more products outside the U.S. than in the country. At an investor meeting in October, Nike, which pulled in $30.6 billion in revenues in 2015, announced its goal to do $50 billion by 2020. 
 
 As James was completing his final months on his first deal, Nike signed him in March 2010 to another nine years. This extension, one source said, will now take LeBron "way beyond his playing years." 
 
 Lately, James has been challenged by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry in the marketing world, as the Warriors beat the Cavaliers in last year's NBA Finals. But Curry's business with Under Armour is still in its infancy, although sell-through of the Curry Two in stores has been very positive. 
 
 James' Nike business has been consistent even when things haven't gone smoothly. James didn't wear his LeBron 11 shoe for most of the 2013-14 season because of its fit, but the product still sold well at retail. 
 
 In recent years, James have evolved into more of a businessman. His equity stake in Beats earned him at least $30 million when the company sold to Apple, and he has territorial rights in Chicago and Miami to Blaze, a customizable pizza chain. Last week, he announced a $15.8 million investment from Time Warner and Turner in his multimedia athlete content platform called Uninterrupted. 
 
 ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin contributed to this report.
– LeBron James is taking plenty of flak over tonight's big announcement in the who-does-this-guy-think-he-is vein. (Witness Drew Magary's rant at Deadspin, where he refers to James as a "self-aggrandizing sack of shit" and doesn't think much better of ESPN.) But Phil Rosenthal at the Chicago Tribune thinks James hasn't milked this enough. There's clearly a public appetite for this, he argues, but the James camp mobilized too late to truly capitalize on it. Haven't they ever watched The Bachelor? This is like showing only the final rose ceremony. "If James and company had been on top of this, his web site would have tracked his whole courtship process. He could have kept an ad-supported video diary, including behind-the-scenes video of meetings with franchises." Let people scoff. "If news consumers are interested demonstrably in something, far be it for media hoping to remain viable to tell them to go look for it somewhere else."