Nike Confiscates All Video Evidence Of Lebron James Getting Dunked On By Sophomore Jordan Crawford

[HacheMan]

Jordan Crawford at the LeBron James Skills Academy

NBA Superstar LeBron James host a skills academy in his hometown of Akron, Ohio for highly touted high school prospects. Top college players from around the nation are brought in as camp counselors. Last year Xavier grad Derrick Brown was a counselor and this year Xavier sophomore Jordan Crawford has followed in Brown's footsteps.

Jordan is a transfer from Indiana who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules. This season Jordan will be playing for his fourth coach in the last two years. Kelvin Sampson, who recruited Crawford to Indiana, resigned amidst a scandal during Crawford's lone season at Indiana. Due to the uncertainty at Indiana, Crawford transfered to Xavier largely because of Sean Miller being head coach. Then after the season Miller left for Arizona which left Jordan having to adjust to yet another new coach, but it turns out to be a familiar face in Chris Mack.

Crawford had an up-and-down freshman season at Indiana due to the scandal surrounding the program, playing out of position and the natural adjustments of making the transition from high school to college. Despite the inconsistency, there is a lot of hype surrounding Crawford and many Xavier fans cannot wait to see him in an Xavier jersey. Throughout last season many observers felt Crawford was the most talented player during Xavier practices. During BJ Raymond's speech at the awards banquet he talked about Jordan's talent and hinted that he would end up breaking the Xavier basketball graduation streak (i.e. leaving XU for the NBA before his senior year).

If the news and hype surrounding Crawford throughout the past year didn't have Xavier fans anticipating Jordan hitting the hardwood for the Musketeers, the news out of the LeBron James Skills Academy certainly will. During a scrimmage Crawford was matched up against LeBron James...and dunked on him.

High school prospect Dwight Powell sets the scene:

They were split into teams, and LeBron had his own team. In all the college player’s eyes, I could see a little fire burning, with all of them itching to show what they have against arguably the best player in the world. One player in particular definitely left their mark in Jordan Crawford of Xavier. On an inbounds play, The King was a step slow, and Crawford put a two-hand dunk on him.

I was shocked, but nothing will change my opinion of King James. Jordan Crawford, on the other hand, has some bounce!"
​

However, the story of the dunk does not end there. After the dunk, LeBron and Nike executives in attendance decided they'd rather not have video evidence of the dunk get on the internet. Nike officials approached videographers in attendance and confiscated their tapes. This move could have backfired on Nike as the dunk has grown into a legend and has become a hot topic on various basketball-related sites on the net.

 

[HacheMan]

Updated: July 8, 2009, 5:39 PM EDT

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> //document.getElementById('number_of_comments').innerHTML = commentCount+" Comments"; </SCRIPT><!-- // Story Content // --><SCRIPT> if(fanid.length > 0 && typeof(nflDefaultLeague)!= "undefined") { leagueId = nflDefaultLeague; //find teamId of default league (if exists) for(var i=0; i < teamsInfo.length; i++){ if(teamsInfo[4] == leagueId){ defaultTeamId = teamsInfo[0]; } } var fantasyLeaguePlayerJsPath = 'http://msn.foxsports.com' + '/nugget/200002_' + leagueId + '|||' + fanid; } </SCRIPT>Apparently, we are not all witnesses.


In fact, only a lucky few can say they saw LeBron James, reigning NBA MVP and the leading heir apparent to Michael Jordan's throne, on the receiving end of a dunk courtesy of Xavier sophomore Jordan Crawford.


That's because a Nike official confiscated tapes from a pair of cameramen who were shooting games involving James and several college players Monday night at the LeBron James Skills Academy.

One of them was freelancer Ryan Miller, who had been filming for roughly 15 minutes — including footage of the high school prospects attending the camp — when Crawford dunked on James. Miller told FOXSports.com he was approached by Nike basketball senior director Lynn Merritt shortly after the play and asked to relinquish his tape.

"The worst part is I'm not even sure I had the shot of the dunk," Miller said. "They might have taken it for no reason."

On Wednesday, a Nike spokesperson declined to make Merritt available for comment, saying a statement would be issued later in the day. But on Tuesday, Merritt told a handful of reporters covering the event that the tape was confiscated because it was against the camp's rules for media to film any of the pro players participating.

At the time, James was playing with Cavs teammates Darnell Jackson, Tarence Kinsey, Daniel Green and Christian Evenga.

So in the absence of any video evidence, we turn to Crawford himself for a description of the censorship-worthy jam.

"I was on the right wing and went down the middle. I got past Danny Green and LeBron was waiting under the basket," Crawford said. "I don't think he thought I was going to dunk it, so he jumped late. It was two-handed."

Crawford said he didn't even fully realize what he had done until afterward.
"Not during the game, but I was geeked afterwards about it," Crawford said. "Everyone was talking about it."

 

[RobFunk]

I understand protecting a players image but that is rediculous

 

[FullWageredMan]

Pretty retarded. I dont think Jordan would do anything like that.. infact their is a video of an executive beating him one on one. He was the type of dude who craved competition.

 

[TheSaint]

total bullshit, but hey, what would you do huh...

 

[GoForBroke]

pretty lame shit.

 

[Muddy]

Lebron = Human garbage

 

[Enfuego]

Why did the cameraman give up the tape? I'd consider firing him. You don't have to give that tape up.

 

[louisvillekid]

That is so street cred right there. Sad that somebody couldn't imagine a way to turn it into something positive and possibly market it in a fun way and have Lebron make light of it, but NO, they gotta go the bully route about it.

 

[Hamilbet]

That's why "King James" sucks. He lets his handlers do shit like this. It's a shame, I like him as a player and an individual...BUT there was and is SSSSOOOOO much hype around him I can't help but hate him.

You know Shaq wouldn't have pulled that shit, and that's partly why he is the superstar he is today.

 

[Hamilbet]

Oh...and that video WILL surfacde eventually.

 

[KillaRSox]

I think the wrong player got the nickname Big Baby. I think Lebron is more deserving of the nickname.

 

[letsgohoosiers]

Crawford was pretty good at IU. Talented but very dumb. Wish him the best at Xavier.

 

[OnePlayAtATime]

Seems like the whole confiscation brought more attention that anything.

 

[FullWageredMan]

The King wears no pants.

 

[ChrisParadise]

Pretty retarded. I dont think Jordan would do anything like that.. infact their is a video of an executive beating him one on one. He was the type of dude who craved competition.

i disagree. this is exactly the thing MJ would have done. id have done the same thing. that video was shot years after MJ left the NBA.

 

[Bennyshoe]

I think Lebron is being a diva. Everyone gets dunked on. Now this makes him look stupider instead of just talking about it and laughing about it.

He walks off the court w/o shaking hands and now this. Pretty soon he'll be saying "We're talking about practice.....practice!"

 

[gtc08]

who says its lebron?

the nike people were the ones who took the footage, not lebron.

unless im missing something here

 

[Muddy]

Lebron is the biggest joke in prof sports?

Queen James STINKS!!!!

Stupid as s motherfukker

 

[HacheMan]

LeBron James - F - Cavaliers

TMZ.com has video of LeBron James getting dunked on at his camp by Xavier's Jordan Crawford, and will air it on Wednesday night.
This is the dunk that Nike and LeBron famously confiscated, so it's sure to draw a lot of attention. While it really doesn't mean much in the big scheme of things, any hopes LeBron and company had about this thing just going away are now dashed. Jul. 22
Source: TMZ.com