LeBron James' decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers caught many people by surprise, especially those in the Miami Heat organization.
The Heat seemed to be confident that they could sign James to team up with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo in South Beach, so much so that Miami's YouTube page mistakenly posted an invite to James' introductory press conference.
While there were many theories as to why the mistake was made, it turns out it was simply one employee making an honest mistake. In the aftermath of James' decision, more information has come out regarding what happened behind the scenes, including the real reason why the Heat had a James press conference scheduled for July 27 on YouTube.
Here's the real reason why the Heat had a James press conference scheduled before a decision was made.
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Why Heat staff member posted LeBron James press conference on YouTube
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reports the Heat's YouTube mistake, which declared a LeBron James introductory press conference for July 27, was a case of a staffer trying to get as much work done as possible before vacation. According to Shelburne, the staffer who made the mistake did so because they were going on vacation and wanted to get ahead of a potential James decision.
James and his agent, Rich Paul, reportedly found the incident "amusing" considering how few people knew about James' decision. In fact, James never considered the idea of doing an introductory press conference with his new team.
"Did anyone really think LeBron was doing a press conference?" a source told Shelburne.
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Was Heat staff member fired for LeBron James press conference mistake?
There is no public evidence that Miami fired someone for the YouTube press conference mistake.
While the Heat have a job opening for Director of YouTube Strategy currently posted, that wasn't necessarily because Miami fired someone for the James mistake. Shelburne reports that job had been posted since the beginning of July, well before the mistake was made.
Nonetheless, the incident probably didn't go over well within the Heat organization, and the person who made the mistake will probably never do something like that again.