Where’s The Tapes? Nike Goes Mum On Crawford’s Dunk Video!

Posted by Matt Loede under NBA Rumors

Jordan Crawford today is a lot more famous then he was a few days ago.

That’s what happens when you two-hand dunk over the current NBA MVP, LeBron James. Crawford did that exact thing during a pickup game at James’ Nike Skills Academy, and the fact there’s no footage anywhere to prove it, makes the dunk even more famous.

There’s still a lot of buzz about the dunk, the taking of the tapes, and what exactly went down when those tapes were taken from two cameramen. One story says James was the one that asked for the tapes to be taken, another says it was Nike, who does not allow those games to be video taped, who had them removed.

One of the cameramen, Ryan Miller, spoke to radio station in Rochester – WHTK-AM, and explained the situation about the dunk and how it all went down:

Ryan Miller: [The dunk] was good. I haven’t looked online to read too much about it. It was as good as it could’ve been hyped up to be. LeBron’s team actually lost two out of three games to these college guys. It was LeBron; Danny Green, the rookie; Christian Eyenga, the rookie; Tarence Kinsey, who’s on the team; and one of LeBron’s high school buddies. And Jordan Crawford blew by Danny Green, the kid from North Carolina on the Cavs. And LeBron came for some help defense, and they jumped at the same time, and he threw it down with two hands over LeBron. This is, like, a 6-foot-4 kid.

Interviewer: Man. So then, when you get word that they want your camera, then, how did that all break down?

Miller: It’s funny because LeBron’s team won that game, actually, [the one] with the dunk. And then LeBron’s team lost the next game to the same group of college guys. And LeBron was just standing there, grabbing some water, ’cause it was winners stay on, so LeBron had to sit out a game. And I actually went up and introduced myself and said, “Hey, I’m Ryan Miller.” LeBron’s good friends with Jonny Flynn, and I know Jonny real well, and I was like, “[I'm] good friends with Jonny.” Jonny gave me a little message to tell LeBron if I ended up seeing him. He’s like, “Oh, where are you from?” I said, “Syracuse” — [it was a] “nice to meet you” type of thing. He’s pretty friendly. Then two minutes later, I saw him go over to Lynn Merritt, the director of basketball at Nike, and then he was talking to him for a second, and then Lynn brought me and another camera guy over. We were the only two people filming — it was later at night — and they said, we need your tape. They claimed you weren’t supposed to be shooting the college and the pro guys working out, and I was told earlier in the day that you could, and there was no media policy saying you couldn’t. It had to have been because LeBron — he played terribly all day, actually. Those three games he played terribly. So my guess is he didn’t want anybody seeing the footage. That’s the only thing we could think of.

Interviewer: So when you get your camera or tape — so that tape is gone?

Miller: I don’t know what happened to it. He originally claimed, well, like, these guys are just getting in shape right now, these Cavs guys. People don’t need to be seeing ‘em. He was kind of giving me the runaround with different excuses. There was a guy in charge of the media who took my tape, and he’s like, “You know what, lemme just pass this by the Nike guys, and I’ll give it back to you in the morning.” But the next morning, he said the director at Nike actually wanted the tape himself, so I have no idea where it is.

It’s the story that won’t go away, and one that seems to have painted “The King” in a negative light.

Updates, Fresh From the Oven, Straight to Your Inbox