LeBron James and the Miami Heat could have avoided the publicity disaster that happened when he switched from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat.
Here's how:
(1) Staying Humble
The easiest storyline for people to understand was that James was being selfish and egocentric in moving to the Heat to win a title with two other superstars, that he was abandoning his hometown.
James and his people knew these hits were coming.
They needed a coherent answer for why he was making such a drastic choice. He and his public relations people should have thought about the right words to say.
Instead, they drew things out, and when James did make his decision on live TV, his words weren't clear and persuasive.
(2) Delaying the Media Spotlight
James didn't need more press attention and hype. It was a mistake to have a one-hour TV special on prime time.
The Miami Heat compounded that mistake by pouring on more hype once James signed with them.
The team hosted an unveiling with James and his two fellow superstar free agents strolling out on a stage as fireworks went off. It was obscenely over the top.
Basketball is a team sport. There are five players on the floor and six on the bench. It's normal to hype a solo athlete in a solo sport, say a heavyweight boxer.
Basketball isn't a solo sport. It was as if the other eight members of the Heat didn't even exist or matter. Somebody who wasn't a basketball fan might wonder when the NBA recently switched to three-on-three.
(3) Focusing on the Team
James and the Heat should have pushed the focus back onto the team.
The NBA requires each team to hold a media day, and to make players available to the press. That's normal. It was also normal for the press to want to talk to the Big Three players on the Heat.
Instead of embracing the media's focus on the Big Three, the Heat should have realized their top three stars were already overexposed.
James could have undone some of the damage by saying, "Hey, I've had enough attention -- let me tell you about our shooting guard, and our center, and our power forward. Let me tell you about the assistant coach over there who's been teaching us amazing things about how to pick apart a defense."
The Heat didn't do this. They let the spotlight stay on the Big Three and ignored the rest of the team, as if they didn't exist.
When the Heat lost their opening game of the season to the Boston Celtics, the media attention and hype that the Heat heaped on James and the other two superstars -- and the talk of beating the Chicago Bulls record of 72-10 -- looked even more arrogant and silly. They should have kept expectations down instead of inflating them and claiming they'd win three championships in the next five years.
By contrast, NFL coach Rex Ryan of the New York Jets has made a team-first attitude mandatory. He tells players that when they get asked a question by the media after a game, mention two players and a coach before talking about yourself.
If you watch, his players -- even the star, quarterback Mark Sanchez -- follow this rule. It's smart, it's effective and in a team sport, it's the right thing to do.