LeBron James And Nike Keep Videotape, Cancel Puppet Commercials (Satire)

An agreement has finally been reached regarding the fate of a videotape showing Xavier's Jordan Crawford dunking on Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James during a pick-up game at a Nike-sponsored Skills Academy this past Monday. 

ESPNU's Ryan Miller, who videotaped the dunk and had the footage confiscated by Nike representatives, agreed to give up the tape to Nike in exchange for an end to all future LeBron James puppet ads. 

The television commercials, as part of Nike's premature build-up for a possible Cavaliers-Los Angeles Lakers Finals, featured puppets of James and Lakers guard Kobe Bryant talking comically and nonsensically.

Miller, who was filming for Syracuse.com, later explained the terms of the agreement and his reaction to the incident.

"I'm kind of pissed about the whole thing because I lost my tape," Miller said. "But as messed up as the confiscation was, those commercials were just plain wrong."

He added:

"In the end, my goal was to make fans happy. The tape would have done it, but I guess putting an end to those annoying puppets was the least I could do as a consolation." 

Nike spokesman Derek Kent issued a statement on Thursday regarding the circumstances of the confiscation.

"We really had to think on out feet when giving an excuse for confiscating the tape," he said. "And the argument that the video-tapers were there after hours was the best we could come up with. It did buy us some time to get out of the predicament."

He also discussed the terms of the final agreement that he reached with Miller, noting that he believed the settlement has the best interests of everyone in mind.

"For one thing, no one has to see those puppets again. At the same time, I think both the commercial and the videotape were major blows to my King's...excuse me, LeBron's image."

"I'm just glad that we've all agreed to move past this."

James, who hosts the camp in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, has yet to speak directly on the matter.

However, there have been rumors that he has offered to cancel his lawyer Vitamin Water commercials in exchange for confiscating footage of him walking off the court and refusing to shake hands at the end in the Eastern Conference Finals.