Watch Now: LeBron Gets Dunked On

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Watch Now: LeBron Gets Dunked On

Posted at 07/09/2009 by Staff 1 Comment

Controversy is surrounding NBA star LeBron James this week after he allegedly asked a Nike official to confiscate video tapes of a high school player dunking on him during a pick up game at his summer LeBron James Skills Academy in Ohio.

Here’s what one of the camera men, Ryan Miller, who was there filming the event told Garry Parrish of CBS Sports that Nike Basketball Senior Director Lynn Merritt said to him when he took his tape:

“He just said, ‘We have to take your tape,’” Miller said. “They took it from other guys, too.”

Worth noting is that there is no policy against filming at the LeBron James Skills Academy, and Miller said he had been filming all day without incident. Nobody ever told him to stop. Nobody ever said there was a problem … until afterCrawford dunked on James.

“LeBron called Lynn over and told him something,” Miller said. “That’s how I knew his name was Lynn. LeBron said, ‘Hey, Lynn. Come here.’”

Minutes later, Miller said Merritt demanded his tape.

“There’s nothing I can think of besides LeBron just not wanting it online,” Miller said. “It’s a good story to tell people, I guess. But then again, I’m kind of pissed. I lost my tape.”

In lieu of video of the actual dunk, here’s video of Jordan Crawford’s play by play of the dunk:

USA Today spoke to Nike who had the following response:

“Nike has been operating basketball camps for the benefit of young athletes for decades and has long-standing policies as to what events are open and closed to media coverage. Unfortunately, for the first time in four years, two journalists did not respect our no videotaping policy at an after-hours pickup game following the LeBron James Skills Academy,” said Nike spokesman Derek Kent on Wednesday.