LeBronJames.com is a functioning site now. I don't know when that happened. But his personal DJ tweeted the URL out today and said "Seriously...does anyone not see what's going on on www.LeBronJames.com ???? Stop asking me, it looks like he's going to tell you himself."
The site is simple: Just a closeup of LeBron's face, the phrase "Something is coming," and a message —
"The launch date is nearing for the online home of LeBron James and you can put yourself on the guest list!Personally directed by LeBron, the new site will keep you up to speed on his actions off the court, his focus on strengthening the community and why “It will always be about more than basketball”.
Then there's spaces to enter your email address and phone number, after which you get the response, "You'll be the first to know."
Before we get to parsing the words and reading the tea leaves, let's agree that this makes sense. Tiger Woods has his own site on which he's broken news about himself, released full statements regarding various topics and transgressions, and promotes all things Tiger Woods.
The middle part is perhaps the most important. It's there he can craft a message that is visible to everyone, not needing to be filtered to the public through the media, with quotes and explanations that can not be taken out of context.
Whichever way LeBron decides, he's going to want to provide a full explanation of his decision. What better way to promote yourself, build a brand, and get your message out effectively and cleanly than with your own site?
Sure, the news will most likely be broken elsewhere, but my hunch is that the first lengthy explanation from LeBron, the first time we see/hear/read quotes from King James, will be on his site. What other reason would it be there?
As for the verbiage... "the new site will keep you up to speed on his actions off the court, his focus on strengthening the community and why 'It will always be about more than basketball.'"
You can read that whatever way you want. It's always about more than basketball? OK, so it's about home and loyalty and that means he's staying? Or, it's always about more than basketball, so he can go play somewhere else but he'll always be loyal to Akron? As much as I believe he's staying in Cleveland, part of me reads that as a subtle message that he's leaving. Maybe it's an outlet for damage control and he wants to give Cleveland a personal message to try and mend fences since he still wants to call Akron his home.
Who the hell knows. But go sign up and we'll all see what happens together.
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