Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Stand Up And Make Some Noise For Your Miami Tweeeeeeeeeeet

Scanning the twitter-verse, I came across this video posted by LeBron James.

(Click on the Title of the blog and the video will be pictured. You can do it now or after you read the blog, it's your call, I'm not going anywhere)

It's LeBron going to an open house for his son's school.

Bronny is getting ready to start Kindergarten, and LeBron checks the place out.
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There are several elements that I find fascinating about this 2:57 video.

First of all, think about how much the boundary has been stripped between athlete and fan.

In the past, we never really KNEW our sports heroes.

We didn't want to.

Information was carefully selected by sports-writers, who used to be drinking buddies with the athletes.

But somewhere along the way, the sports journalist went from trying to glorify these stars, to trying to destroy them.

Perhaps it was jealousy as the zeroes grew after the athletes' checks.

Perhaps it was just the evolving nature of "gottcha" journalism.

The end result was superstars like Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter who talk, but never actually say anything.
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In a sense, twitter has cut out the middle man.

In the past, if you were going to get a story about LeBron James as father, you'd have to rely on a writer capturing that.

The problem is, that opens the writer up to interpret the athlete's life and inject their own views.

That's what happened with the GQ cover-story about LeBron.

The article featured brief interactions with LeBron's kids, but they were told from the writer's point of view.
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That's what made this posting so interesting to me.

It was a Blair-Witch style video, and there was no filter.

It was just LeBron-as-Dad.

Of course, you could say, perhaps he's mugging for the camera a bit, manipulating his image.

Maybe.

But to me, it sure just seemed like a proud dad checking out his son's school.
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The final aspect that I liked about the clip, is that it's literally shot from LeBron's point-of-view.

So not only does the viewer get to see the world through his eyes, we also get to see HOW people react to him.

You can see parents and kids turning around with that "WHOA that's LeBron James" look on their faces.

It's a look that's real and a bit raw.
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The good news for Heat fans is that the Big three: LeBron, Wade, and Bosh are all savvy with social media.

Throughout their time here, we'll be privy to parts of their lives that they wouldn't be able to share otherwise.

As much as I'll enjoy following the basketball team, I'll also enjoy following the Miami Tweet.

2 comments:

  1. What's really amazing is how you figured out how to link something to your blog. I'm impressed!

    ReplyDelete