to provide a connection to the club.On July 8, 2010, after a season of speculation, LeBron James announced his free-agency destination in a one-hour special on ESPN called The Decision. The concept for the prime-time show was hatched in Los Angeles during the 2010 NBA Finals, but it was executed in the tony suburb of Greenwich, Conn. A year later, four key behind-the-scenes operatives speak about their roles in creating the controversial event — the semi-secretive logistics, the intended misdirections, the surprise celebrity participants, and who knew what and when about how their grand production unfolded.
Mark Dowley, former partner at the William Morris Endeavor agency and a Greenwich resident: Ari Emanuel [co-CEO of William Morris] called me and said, “What do you think of the idea of doing the show?” And I really liked it. I like the whole notion of the emancipation of talent. No one could have guessed the level of interest this would get. We had never seen anything like that.
I said we should do it, and I knew Maverick [Carter, LeBron's business manager] and LeBron would agree we should do it for charity. LeBron has a natural preconceived notion about the Boys & Girls Club, and they could sure use the help. I called Maverick, and he loved the idea. He talked to LeBron, and he loved the idea. And then we went out in the course of 10 days and pulled it together.
It always struck me that here we are in [Greenwich], one of the most affluent communities in the world, and we have a terrible gym at the Boys & Girls Club. I thought we could help them out.
Dowley didn’t know how to approach the Boys & Girls Club without blowing the secret, so he called longtime friend Scott Frantz, a Connecticut state legislator and Greenwich resident, and asked him
To read more, click the link below.
http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/06 ... nba_t12_a1
