LEBRON JAMES AND PUBLIC RELATIONS 1

LeBron James and Public Relations

Group 4

Avery Brennan

Ashley Bower

Darragh Goeckel

Josie Goodman

Alex Russman

Lansing Community College

This essay will look at the counseling skills used in the case study. In the case study,

reputation, recovery, and social media were used. These skills will be analyzed to demonstrate

public relations. The case study “James and Public Relations,” demonstrates the impact of his

decisions. LeBron’s reputation was affected by his decisions regarding basketball. Based on his

decisions, James goes through the recovery process for his public relations. The last thing that

James does to build his relations is through the use of technology with his fans. Overall, the case

study “James and Public Relations” walks us through James’s journey of moving from the

Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat.

In the case study “James and Public Relations” it explains the story of Lebron James and

how his public image was damaged, but eventually restored. Lebron James exceptional

basketball talent gave him the opportunity to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers out of high school.

He had a very successful start to his career and became known as one of the best basketball

players in the NBA quickly. He brought a lot of happiness and gave a sense of hope to the people
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of Cleveland. He also set up many programs, such as I PROMISE, that were intended to help

young children that were in school. In 2010, Lebron James had announced on the ESPN

television show, The Decision, that he was leaving Cleveland and going to play for the Miami

Heat. This announcement made many people upset, and he was criticized for it. It caused both of

his personal and public image to be damaged. He eventually came back to play for Cleveland

after several years, but people were still upset with him. This case study explored what

techniques can be used to restore one’s image and the tactics Lebron James used. One specific

thing he did was connect with all of his fans through the use of technology. After several years,

Lebron James was able to restore his image and was once again seen as one of the best basketball

players.

The beginning of LeBron James’ road to recovery began with the downfall of his

reputation which had taken a major hit after his televised special The Decision aired on ESPN.

When LeBron James announced he would be leaving Cleveland to play for the Miami Heat, he

made it clear that his main reason for change was his want to win big. His decision to leave

Cleveland and take his talents to another team could have been handled much better. Due to this

decision, James upset many of his fans in the process. In the section Strategy and Tactics, it

mentions that many fans took his statement as he was going to Miami because he could not win

or be successful while at Cleveland. In the closing remarks during the July 2010 episode of Real

Sports with Bryant Gumbel, the sportscaster said: “Lebron James seems to think he needs a ring

to change his life and secure his legacy… Lebron may yet find that in the court of public

opinion, just as putting on a tux can’t make a guy a gentleman, winning a ring can’t make one

truly a champion (HBO, 2010). This backlash is due to the impact he made on the Cleveland area
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as he brought hope that they never had. James could have shown more empathy towards the

people of Cleveland to avoid offending his fans. The strategies of reducing offensiveness are:

bolstering, minimization, differentiation, transcendence, attacking the accuser, and

compensation. If James would have considered being apologetic to his fans and teammates by

using the strategies of Reducing Offensiveness it would have been less detrimental to his brand.

LeBron James’s personal and professional image was severely damaged by the fallout

from the spectacles and subsequent posturing. His talent and image on the court affected his

image off the court. Being a professional athlete who went straight from high school to the NBA,

James automatically is given high expectations put on him by the spectators of society.

Receiving the Rookie of the year award, it is easy for people to forget he is still a kid. His young

age played a large factor in why his communication and public relation strategies and tactics

were so unconventional. After five years, however, LeBron’s image has recovered fully, and

today has the distinction of being one of the most popular athletes in the world. James is one of

the ten most charitable athletes in the world. He founded many programs, including the Lebron

James Family Foundation, Wheels for Education, and I PROMISE. These programs are intended

to help young children to be able to go to school and get a good education. The programs that he

founded were mainly centered in Cleveland and Akron even as the fans of those areas were

angry at him for leaving. His commitment and leadership to the youth of the Northeast Ohio

region allowed many people to be helped and allowed him to be awarded the H. Peter Burg

Award in 2015. Despite the hard feelings from his fans, James was still a respected role model as

he succeeded in Miami, as his reputation healed very quickly.

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When LeBron James was first pathing his way to success building a relationship was

much different than it is today. Social media has greatly changed the way athletes can build and

maintain relationships with their fans. Social media provides the opportunity for athletes to

humanize themselves to spectators and communicate with fans. Media allows us to stay

connected to athletes, especially for those with fandoms of certain players. Before the use of

social media, it was much harder for athletes to communicate with all of their fans. They didn’t

have the opportunity to use social media and to stay connected all of the time. Lebron James has

increased his social media use, which allows fans to know what is going on in his professional

life and his personal life. In the Theory section of the article, it mentions that both traditional

(television, radio, etc.) and social media are effective in restoring and maintaining a self-image-

social media being the most effective of the two. Following James' return to Cleveland, he

became more active on social media and more interactive with his fans through it which more

than likely helped in the restoration process of his image.

Lebron James has grown into a very successful and established man over the years and

the American society has been able to watch him grow from “The Kid from Akron” to who he is

today. His successes alongside his mistakes have been a spectacle for society since he was a

highschool student. “The Decision” television special offered a hopefully huge learning

experience for James even despite his unconventional communication and image restoration

processes. The wording of James’ announcement left an arrogant image in the eyes of his fans

and other spectators. James' success at Miami may have helped the restoration process of his

image to be more efficient, but finding success at Miami as he did certainly did not hurt him as

much as defeat at Miami would have. The lack of typical image restoration tactics put to use by
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James may have been strongly related to his young age, but he was still able to recover with the

use of social media. Social media allowed him to connect with his fans and create a more

personable image than the opinions and coverage of the traditional forms of media gave him.

Despite the minimal effort to restore his image to the public and use more acceptable and less

offensive communication, James continued to be his self- goal-oriented, charitable, hard

working, and composed.

Work Cited:

Stansberry, K., & Strauss, J. (2016). A cavalier approach to public relations: The unconventional

image restoration of LeBron James Case Studies in Strategic Communication, 5,140-158.

Available online:http://cssc.uscannenberg.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/08/v5art8.pd