“You’ll be the first to know.”
Register at the new LeBronJames.com and that is the sentence that greets you.
Those words plus other rumblings from his camp suggest that the first place the word of LeBron’s decision on where to play next year will be made through his site. DJ Steph Floss -- the DJ at Cavaliers games and LeBron’s personal DJ -- said on his blog that the announcement would come through the site (via Sports By Brooks).
Nobody knows for certain how the word will come down -- there could be leaks from the team that gets the call with the good news -- but the first words from LeBron almost certainly will be via his new site.
Which is a great publicity stunt, much like the recent series of meetings have been. Not that the one-on-one time that James got with the coaches of all the teams (except the Clippers, who don’t have one yet) was not informative for him. But the spectacle of the dog-and-pony shows and power points was about publicity and James feeling wooed and wanted. It was not about making a decision.
But that is done, we are on to the decision part. And that is going to be announced via his Web site, apparently.
LeBron has been behind the curve in the digital world, and this relaunched site is an attempt to change that. He had a deal with Microsoft to do his old site, which was not impressive and eventually the deal fizzled out.
James does not have a slick site with personal information and content from the man like Kobe’s KB24. He does not have a polished site with his own blog and is not a social media star like Kevin Durant or Chris Bosh. (Nobody would be surprised if Bosh announced his decision on twitter.) Online, James has been a little lower profile (although you could certainly drown in the James stuff on the Web produced by others).
This site looks to change that. Eventually. Right now the words “You’ll be the first to know” are the only thing that greets you (save a link to James’ Facebook page and a digitized picture of him with the words “Getting Closer” over it.) Expect that to change with the announcement of a team.
And is there any better way to drive traffic to a new site than to be the first with the LeBron James news?