Ping of Pain

not only is lebron james’ brand hurting, but so also is the man himself. yesterday, king james shared some of the hateful tweets he’s received since leaving the cleveland cavaliers for greener pastures with the miami heat. just one year ago, lebron’s popularity among sports icons was an all-time high in 4th place. he’s now tied at 78th with the recently-suspended ben roethlisberger. eek. espn and a branding expert they leveraged for a piece yesterday both point to rising numbers in social media space — citing james’ newly-minted twitter account and nearly 1,000,000 followers. i think this is shallow and muddied data at best. people go where there is controversy for something to talk about. these “fans” of his social pages don’t have to be feelgood on his brand as a whole. they want fodder for cooler talk. marc cuban, owner of the dallas mavericks, claims that james easily lost over $1 billion in brand equity in the 24 hours behind “the decision” telecast. i’d love to hear cuban ruminate on his brand equity estimations, but the fact is that there’s been a tremendous loss. sure, miami heat tickets and merch are selling like hotcakes. while that’s not insignificant math, there is the greater goal of his international persona that has experienced quite a setback — better described as perhaps an insurmountable trek back towards the top. only time will tell. please note: i’ve featured this ongoing story twice in 2010 (search lebron james at the upper right of this page for my july 9 and sept 30 posts) and it keeps getting worst — er, more interesting from a branding standpoint.