A LeBron-related entity reportedly paid Jim Gray’s expenses related to his appearance questioning James on “The Decision,” but the whole set up of the show itself gives ESPN incentive to cover James favorably.

CNBC reported last week that Jim Gray, LeBron James’ interviewer during their greatly criticized “The Decision” special, was paid for expenses by LeBron James’ camp, not by ESPN.

Of course that would be a tremendous breach of ethics to accept payments from the person on whom you are supposed to be reporting, but it’s not like ESPN is going to report critically on LeBron James, anyway. After all, isn’t ESPN receiving revenues from their positive coverage of LeBron simply by the fact that he is one of their networks biggest draws?

LeBron wasn’t going to go to ESPN if they asked him tough questions or reported critically on him in the past. The show got a 7.3 rating, their highest rating for any programming this year outside of NFL games (that includes NBA playoff games). ESPN has continued to interview LeEgo a few more times since then, and Bleacher Report notes that in none of ESPN’s interviews with James did ESPN ask why James chose to announce his decision in such a public manner that was destined to leave his hometown fans heartbroken (more so than if he had announced it quietly).

ESPN knows well what happens when you aren’t on LeBron James’ good side. Early in James’ career, he boycott doing interviews with ESPN The Magazine because he thought they *portrayed his mother in a negative light.*

According to The Sixth Man by ESPN reporter Chris Palmer:

[ESPN writer Tom] Friend didn’t get his facts wrong but LeBron felt he portrayed his mother, Gloria, in an unfavorable light. From that day forward, LeBron put The Magazine on his banned substance list.

Of course its natural that athletes and other public figures try to control their image and part of that includes seeking out favorable media portrayals. It’s nothing new. Reporters were also reluctant to report on Jordan’s alleged gambling problems and other negative factors about him lest they lose access. It happens with public figures in all disciplines.

However in sports, ESPN isn’t called “the worldwide leader” for nothing. ESPN is THE sports outlet, so I suppose they have more influence over public perceptions of the people they cover than other news organizations in other fields. It was kind of weird seeing ESPN hyping this one-hour special sponsored in part by Taco Bell of a player they had played a large part in building up themselves for his whole career now to reap huge ratings based on their building him up. Now ESPN is already asking “How many titles will LeBron win?”

UPDATE: Just like I said, ESPN is in LeBron’s kool-aid cooler and painting him like he wants them to.

They just delted a story on of their writers wrote about a “wild” LeBron James party.

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