When you’re the most famous athlete in the Western Hemisphere, everything you do, no matter how minute, is scrutinized. When you or I tweet out a cryptic subtweet, it might annoy a few people who have to scroll through some nonsense on their timeline. When LeBron James does so, it seems like the sky is falling. It has to be exhausting, but it’s been the case for long enough so that when LeBron does something strange like unfollow the Cleveland Cavaliers on Twitter, he knows it’s going to be news.
And yet, when asked about the unfollow after the Cavs’ demolition of the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, LeBron was visibly upset, and abruptly ended the interview, as seen above. On one level, you can understand why the question, even couched in apologies as it was, would irk James. After all, he was probably looking forward to a pleasant media session after one of his best performances of the year — a triple-double with 33 points — and right in the middle of it, he was getting grilled for his Twitter account again. It’s annoying, we get it. But as Joe Vardon, who asked LeBron the offensive question, argues, he needs to appreciate the effect his social-media presence has.
Vardon reports that a source close to James told him the unfollow was just part of the star’s annual ritual of scaling back his social-media presence ahead of the rapidly-approaching playoffs, when he will go dark entirely. It’s possible, but it’s not likely — after all, if he’s just going to shut it all down anyway, why would he specifically unfollow his team’s Twitter account and the account of several Cleveland media members? He still follows a handful of national media members as of this writing. It’s all strange, and though it’s insignificant in the large scheme of things, LeBron himself is clearly emotionally affected by all the hand-wringing over his Twitter account this season. The power of social media for public figures is to control the message they send to the public, but it seems like LeBron is still struggling with that control and with his messages.
(Via Cleveland.com)
