Photo by d_julien
Participants at LeBron James’ Nike basketball camp in Cleveland this week learned a little bit about media manipulation alongside ball handling skills. From The Quad blog in the New York Times comes a report that a freelance photographer’s footage was confiscated after he ran afoul of the star’s vanity.
Ryan Miller had been at the camp shooting video all day when he caught an Xavier sophomore dunking on James – what Miller calls the “highlight of the camp.” Miller says James’ team lost the subsequent game and then he saw the star call over a Nike official. The official then told Miller he couldn’t tape the professional players basically because the players are out of shape, and then he took the video – the entire video of the day, mind you, that Miller was shooting as a freelancer for ESPNU. Not right.
It’s fine to have a closed camp with a no photography policy. But to decide midway through the event, after what is so clearly an embarrassing moment for James, to then enact a policy and confiscate footage (and someone’s livelihood)? That’s not just bad PR, it’s ridiculous. Get over yourself.
Article from The New York Times
boywithgrenade.org 
In interviews, the photographer, Ryan Miller, says he was told earlier in the day he could shoot, and after he was asked for the tape, he was told by one of the media relations people that he would get his tape back the next morning, but obviously that didn’t happen. Miller isn’t even sure if he got the dunk on video.
1st interview: http://tinyurl.com/lkn6ay
2nd interview: http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/player?id=4319948