Okay, this is starting to turn into a sports blog a bit. I guess that was inevitable, since my first career was in sports journalism, and a part of me is always going to want to talk about the big sports stories going on. But I swear I’m going to try and make this blog a bit more diverse than that. It just so happens with the World Cup and the whole LeBron James free agency saga there have been a lot of sports type thingys to talk about. And I’m here to defend LeBron.

There has been soooo much venom and negativity towards LB23 (oops, I guess it’s gonna be LB6 now) for the way he handled his free agency decision, and I guess I can understand some of that criticism. Going on TV and keeping all of his fans in Cleveland in suspense for so long, only to reveal that he wasn’t coming back was a pretty insensitive move to that fan base. But while he could have handled his departure differently, I don’t see how anybody can fault him for leaving.

In my opinion, he’s the best basketball player alive today (I’m watching you closely Durant) and has been surrounded by very average players in Cleveland for 7 years. He averaged 27 points, 7 reb and 7 assists and was an absolute force of nature for that team, and they never did anything in terms of surrounding him with real talent. Why should he stay!? That owner has only himself to blame. Lebron is under no obligation to do anything for a franchise that did so little to build a team around him. So he’s moving on. And good for him I say. He’s 25 years old, in his prime, and was on a team that wasn’t helping him. It’s his life after all, and he wants to win championships above all else Now he’s put himself in a great position to do that.

I waited and waited. This was a big decision and I had to gather all the information. And that meant waiting. My embarrassing flip phone from 2007 was finally being put out to pasture, and for its replacement, I was leaning towards the Droid Incredible. But the online cell phone bloggers made a good point about waiting for the Sprint HTC EVO 4G to launch in early June. This looked especially appealing after reading that Sprint had just begun a soft launch of their 4G Network in the West Los Angeles area. Okay cool. I’ll wait for that one.

But then some other bloggers reminded me about the Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference and the introduction of the iPhone 4. Probably worth holding off on the EVO until we saw what Mr. Jobs had in store. So I waited a bit longer to check that out. And now that the EVO and the iPhone 4 are all finally here, I can’t get either one of them!! They’re both sold out all over the country, in stores and online.

Did these guys drastically underestimate the demand for these smartphones? Is it a marketing ploy to keep the buzz going about how popular these phones are? In any case, I want an EVO and I can’t get one. So now I have to go back to texting underneath the table so nobody sees my piece of garbage phone. But ohhhh boy, once I get the EVO things are gonna be different. I’ll strap it to a big chain and wear it around my neck like a rapper, full of swagger with my new found 4G confidence. But until then, I wait.

Okay, I’m really not trying to turn this blog into some sort of soccer forum, but it just so happens that two of my favorite commercials recently happen to be related to the World Cup.  Yeah, I know Americans are passionately disinterested about soccer for the most part, but not me. And even without watching a moment of this year’s tournament from South Africa, anyone can appreciate the massive global appeal and influence of this event. Billions will hinge on every bounce of the ball and the lives of certain men will be changed forever. With that in mind, check out this commercial from Nike and the creatives at Wieden+Kennedy in Amsterdam.

Wow. It’s amazing. I really don’t usually buy into the whole ‘advertising can be art’ argument, but this ad is basically a short film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the guy who was nominated for an Oscar for directing Babel. So I’ll make an exception and describe this spot as captivating, exciting, hilarious, and yes…artistic.

I do. I got it bad. And this great commercial from the agency Syrup in New York makes me want to go out and buy a flag and paint my face.

The song is ‘Going On’ by Gnarls Barkley. I love it. Great track and a great choice for this spot. And as a soccer fan, I can tell you that’s Ghana’s Michael Essien and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o in there. But where’s my boy Didier Drogba from the Ivory Coast? Recently named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list, fyi. Admittedly, much of my soccer knowledge comes from way too much time spent playing FIFA on Xbox. In any case, I think this is a great commercial and it gets me pumped for the World Cup.

I appreciate economic writing. Like the minimalist copy in this recent Heineken commercial from Euro RSCG Worldwide. It’s just 16 words in total.

Your boss is a frightening man.
His daughter is lovely.
This little maneuver is entirely ill-conceived.
Well done.

I like it. Nice, simple copy. There’s a beginning, middle and ending in just 16 words. Yes, the super-hot girl is noticeable too -- this is still a beer advertisement after all. But even if you took out the visual and only heard the audio, I think you’re still able to visualize an entertaining story in your head. That’s good writing.