King's Edict: Lebron James Gets Dunked On, Confiscates Video

There is more news from the LeBron James camp, actually from the basketball camp he is running; the LeBron James Skills Academy.  

During a game of pickup, James was dunked on by college player Jordan Crawford.

Now, if you search “LeBron James dunks” on Youtube, you will find countless clips of James slamming the ball through the rim, but you won’t find any video of this particular dunk by Crawford.

Apparently, after James got dunked on, he spoke with Nike representative Lynn Merritt who proceeded to confiscate all video footage of the “incident.”

This means a couple of interesting things.

For starters, we can now talk about James and Richard Nixon in the same sentence.

Also, Nike is better at keeping video footage under wraps than the Iranian government.

It also marks another borderline unsportsmanlike incident for James.  

Remember, last year after Boston eliminated Cleveland in the NBA Playoffs, James did not shake hands with the victorious Celtics.  

This year, it was déjà vu all over again when Orlando beat Cleveland in a six game series and James snubbed the Magic by heading to the locker room without shaking hands.

Then, James refused to speak to the media, leaving his teammates to explain the unexpected loss to the Magic without him.

When James finally did appear on camera to speak to the media, he was sporting New York sports gear.

Add all that to this new tape hiding incident, and you get the idea that all the pressure or all the fame is getting to James.

This latest video confiscation news is particularly annoying.

These college kids that James is playing with look up to him as a role model. Dunking over James was probably one of the highlights in Crawford's basketball career and now he won’t be able to see it or show it to family and friends.

In my opinion, if you play hard enough to get to dunk on James, you deserve to show that to people.

Plus, it’s not as though Crawford Harlem Globetrottered him by throwing a bucket full water or shredded paper at him.  This was a normal basketball play that happened during a game.

We all know it’s possible for James to get dunked on. We all saw Courtney Lee in that crazy looking face mask dunk over James during the Conference Finals.

No one doubts James’ talent, so why look like a prima donna by asking a Nike representative to confiscate tapes of this dunk?

Usually in interviews, James comes off as good natured and humorous, so the fact that he couldn’t laugh at this comes a something of a surprise.

His previous incidents, not shaking hands and not talking to the press, came after devastating losses. This was just a play in a skills camp that James is running.

If this is an indication of where James’ personality is going, how long will it be before those puppet commercials start to tick him off?

Lil’ Dez better watch out, James might be coming for footage of him next.

Despite this Tape-Gate mishap, James doesn’t seem like a bad guy.

He is young and has a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and while these incidents are borderline, James hasn’t done anything truly awful yet.

It’s not time to vilify King James yet, but if he keeps this up, he might get a new nickname: Royal Pain.