Lakers forward LeBron James (6) reacts after a dunk during the first half against the Wizards at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Dec. 18, 2022.

LeBron James is the greatest player of his generation, a paradigm of consistency. He’s a business mogul and a brand incarnate. He’s a philanthropist who has constantly lifted his community.

And now, with his latest “Decision”, the Los Angeles Lakers icon also just burned through some of the goodwill he had worked so carefully to cultivate.

The announcement James teased Monday, Oct. 6 – one that was touted as “The Second Decision" – turned out to be a Hennessy ad, launching a limited edition bottle of cognac bearing his image.

James’ collab does not erase or even minimize the years of charity and social activism that connected him to his fans. But it did leverage his looming retirement – and the inherent emotional impact that carries with his supporters across the globe – as a tool of late stage capitalism to drum up interest in the cognac. It was artifice, teased under the pretense of it being a follow-up to his infamous July 2010 televised special in which he announced he would be joining the Miami Heat.

This is noteworthy, particularly because James had expressed regret over the way the original “Decision” was handled, saying in a December 2011 interview with ESPN that he “would probably change a lot of it.”

Now, more than anything, this erodes some trust in James, and the response many had Monday to the teaser was telling.

Dozens of social media users guessed that the announcement would be an ad. The only suspense was whether it would be for Taco Tuesday or Amazon Prime Day, both of which landed Oct. 7. It was neither, and when the time comes for James to actually announce his retirement plans, many may wonder if they’re about to be hawked another product.

Although Monday’s post didn’t contain the typical #ad disclosure, there were plenty of signs that the announcement was merely going to be a marketing ploy.

The production value, down to the green screened basketball court behind him, was decidedly sterile, a clear tell of corporate content designed to be tasteless. The “decision of all decisions” language used in the teaser was clumsy and heavy-handed in the way it referenced his initial departure from Cleveland. The manufactured suspense it generated all felt forced.

James, however, shares blame in all of this, and we in the media bear some responsibility. In a vacuum, high-profile athletes are free to plug any product, provided it follows the rules set forth in their league. This is commonplace and unexceptional.

Stripping Tuesday’s announcement of all emotional context, a high-profile player for the Los Angeles Lakers launched a marketing campaign for an established liquor brand. If this sounds monumentally boring, that’s because it is exactly that.

But because people are fascinated by everything James does, we often magnify even the most mundane events and cover them comprehensively. James knows this part well, and it’s precisely why the ad campaign was packaged the way it was.

James is hyper-aware and protective of his image and knew well that his teaser would ignite speculation about his future the way it did. Even Lakers ticket prices soared under the possibility that this would be his final season.

From his high school in Akron, Ohio, to Cleveland, Miami, back to Cleveland and then to Los Angeles, James has been a person who has left every situation better than when he entered it. This is true, also for the NBA. None of that changes with this ad campaign.

Yet, in the future, James may very well give people pause when he says he has a decision to make.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LeBron James leverages 'Decision' for cynical marketing ploy | Opinion

Reporting by Lorenzo Reyes, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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