NBA

Another Ridiculous Minor League Baseball Promotion: Non-Existent “LeBron James Championship Rings”

by Glenn Davis | 5:18 pm, June 15th, 2011

You know minor league baseball teams will do anything to get fans to the ballpark – hence, the Anthony-Weiner-inspired boxers giveaway. Well, the class-A Peoria Chiefs have a giveaway of their own, relating to the recently-completed NBA Finals, scheduled for this Thursday – and yes, it mocks LeBron James.

How’d the Chiefs throw a LeBron-mocking giveaway together so soon after the Finals, you wonder? There’s a simple trick to it: they’re not actually giving away anything. Allow the team to explain:

The Peoria Chiefs have added a LeBron James 2011 NBA Championship Replica Ring Giveaway to all fans on Thursday June 16 to enhance the Salute to the 1990s Chicago Bulls Championship Teams Night. The replica ring, which like LeBron’s is non-existent, will be handed out to all fans through the gates prior to the 7:00 p.m. game against Wisconsin.

We can’t help but be curious how many additional fans will be attracted to the game by something that doesn’t tangibly exist – we’re guessing it’s a non-zero number, which is kind of amazing, really. And this is actually a good idea by the Chiefs – the original “tribute to the ’90s Bulls” thing didn’t sound like too much of a draw, and there’s no question more people are talking about them now. (But we hope Mark Cuban, in his desire to go beyond mere championship rings, doesn’t get any ideas.)

We also wonder, though, if LeBron-mocking is finally hitting its saturation point. Yes, The Decision was spectacularly bad form and the NBA Finals contained some spectacularly bad LeBron flameouts. But, like…we get it. LeBron blew it. Michael Jordan won a lot of championships. LeBron isn’t Jordan, never will be.

Yes, he says some ill-advised things. Yes, he calls himself “King James.” Enough. Eventually, mocking all that’s going to get old, and for us, that process has started. We can’t blame Peoria for doing this, but if they do something like it next year, too, it’s just not going to be fun anymore.

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