Tonight, LeBron James, the basketball superstar and marketing machine, will announce where he will play his home games in the future. For the first seven years of his NBA career, The Chosen One has played for his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, King James, as he is also known, will chose to either stay with Cleveland or move on to another team, possibly Miami, Chicago or New York. The brand of LeBron is significant. For 2009, James’ estimated endorsement deals totaled $28MM placing him third among all athletes and the #1 basketball player globally. With his pending decision the brand should be growing stronger, more beloved and inching LeBron closer to the hallowed territory of His Airness, Michael Jordan. Jordan, the first great Nike-engineered superstar had a brand that was unsurpassed and still, to this day, is the gold standard for athletes.

This move was to signal the second coming, if not on the basketball court, then certainly across homes around the world of what a superstar athlete can deliver from a personal brand to corporate brands. With that as the backdrop it is staggering to look at the complete airball that LeBron is shooting in the social space leading up to this decision. Let’s break down how the Brand of LeBron has fared poorly in furthering his brand.

Even personal brands don’t get that social media is about the community
On Tuesday, LeBron James officially joined Twitter. Within 24 hours nearly 24,000 people were following @KingJames. So far there have been 2 tweets, one announcing LeBron’s arrival on the platform and the second wishing everyone a good Wednesday morning. In one sense this sums up the value exchange and worth of Twitter for many. On the other hand it paints a stark contrast to the efforts by companies like RadioShack together with athletes like Lance Armstrong and his @livestrong work. Armstrong is LiveStrong and through that support and affiliation with select corporate brands people are now associating him with his Team RadioShack cycling efforts and their combined efforts against cancer. Could this become LeBron’s future on the platform and in a  broader social way? Sure, but the Brand of LeBron is clearly about just that – LeBron at this moment. When the value exchange is so cheap, a follower on Twitter is making no emotional or financial commitment and you often get back what you put in, which is nothing. The brands that have figured out Twitter and other key social platforms are the ones putting more into the community than just themselves.

When in doubt, do it for the kids
Tuesday night brought us the interruption of programming with the bottom-of-the-screen scroll reporting “breaking news” that sources had told ESPN that a primetime special on Thursday night would air to reveal where LeBron is going. The best part? The special is on ESPN. That’s right, “sources” told ESPN reporters that this was happening on the very network that signs their paychecks. But this special was going to do more than just tell us where a guy was going to shoot hoops, it was going to be an opportunity for LeBron to generate monies to give back to the Boys and Girls Club of America through sponsorships which have already been secured with multiple advertisers. So now we have an athlete who is about to announce who will pay him personally in excess of $100 million over the next 5-6 years to play basketball, while he generates nearly $30 million annually in endorsements making himself into a televised spectacle for a few million to build basketball courts around the country. If you want to see the vitriol around this just do a Twitter search for LeBron or “the Decision” as it’s being called now by ESPN.

What we are witnessing is one part media creation, one part gifted athlete with a runaway ego justifying his actions. LeBron is either going on national TV to stick a dagger through the hearts of all his present fans in the area he grew up or he’s going to end months of debate by simply going back to where his heart always was. This is a massive personal decision that he’s putting out there for the world and then asking brands to still buy from his own brand despite the apparent damage.

It was either former NFL coach John Madden or legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor who said “Winning/success is a great deodorant.” Once the season begins, and if LeBron finally wins a NBA title, much of this behavior will be forgotten and matter little. But when corporate brands now spend to not only buy the impact an athlete can have on the field, but also what he can do in the new digital marketplace, it matters far more how an athlete conducts his social business. In this case, LeBron just missed a wide-open shot at further greatness.