In the summer of 2010, LeBron James had the world by the tail. He was considered the best NBA player to never win a title, if not the best outright.
He was the hometown Ohio kid who stayed to play for his home team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
James had a great public image: playful, boyish, happy, fun. He stayed out of the tabloids and never made headlines for getting arrested or doing anything remotely stupid.
James didn't just make millions upon millions putting a round ball through a hoop. He made even more in endorsements, because who didn't like the man?
And then he blew it. In an epic public relations disaster, his free agency and switch to the Miami Heat was mishandled in a spectacular way. He went from spotless hero to villain in the eyes of many, and there was no reason why this had to happen.
Free agency is normal. Athletes switch teams all the time.
This wasn't a natural scadal. Pete Rose getting caught betting on baseball, now, that's a big scandal and a tough problem. James switching to the Heat didn't have to be a PR disaster.
But James and the Heat made two key mistakes anyone doing PR can learn from.
Mistake No. 1: Media Overexposure
ESPN, sports radio and newspaper columnists were already devoted amazing amounts of time and ink on what LeBron James entering free agency would mean for the NBA.
He didn't need extra attention. James was getting insane amounts.
If he was a college player with talent but zero media exposure, sure, fire up the hype machine. Get your man ink and airtime however you can.
James didn't need an ounce of hype. The media attention was already overkill. If anything, he would have scored points with sports fans by telling everybody to settle down and cover something else, because this was getting absurd.
Instead, he heaped more hype on himself by talking ESPN into airing a one-hour, live TV special in prime time to essentially say two words: "Miami Heat."
Mistake No. 2: Ignoring the Storyline
People naturally put news into a narrative.
Who's the hero and who's the villain?
James was always the hero. He was the local boy who made it big, but stayed humble and stayed home. He didn't get into trouble.
All that changed with how he mishandled the PR side of free agency.
By heaping more attention on himself, he came across as selfish, when if you watch his game, he's anything but selfish. He's always looking to pass the ball to his teammates, and he's not the point guard. He's a great player and by all accounts a great young man.
You can argue that moving to Miami makes perfect sense if he wants to win a title.
The public relations side, however, can't be ignored -- especially when professional athletes rely on a good public image to sell tickets, and many athletes make more money with endorsement deals than they do on the court or on the field.