The Online Rise and Fall of Lebron James takes a look at the 30 days leading up to the ESPN announcement of signing with the Miami Heat, and how it affected what people said about Lebron online. Put together by: http://www.bolinmarketing.com http://www.consumersphere.com

2. Social Media Velocity Conversation had almost doubled in the last 30 days.

3. Velocity Trend Day of announcement

4. Lebron James Social Media Sentiment

6. Very poor sentiment surrounding decision.

7. Positives: best player, did great things for Cleveland, smart business and had a right to move.

8. Negatives: selfish, self absorbed, immature and self-promoting and very poor sentiment towards “Descision” show on ESPN.

10. Lebron James Positive Verbatim Cleveland fans need to suck it up. It's a business. LeBron gave they so much and they gave him poor team after poor team. Shaq, Ben Wallace, these guys are okay but when you look at teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and now the Heat, you can't tell me that they couldn't have gotten another big name to go beside him...and yet, he pretty much carried that team to the championships. I love Lebron and will love him no matter where he goes. Lebron James is so much fun to watch, but what he did to Cleveland is just shameful. One question: Exactly what did Lebron James OWE Cleveand? YOu guys are all acting like he was obligated to stay there for the resty of his career. If Dan Gilbert had surrounded him with better players the last 5 years instead of broken down has-beens like Shaq and Antawn Jamison, maybe they would have won something and he wouldn't have felt like he had to leave Cleveland to get that title. Lebron James had every right to do what he did. He played hard and won for Cleveland. He does not owe him anything. Lebron is the best player on this planet no matter where he plays. I will always enjoy watching him play. Best player in the world and a blast to watch. Sorry Cleveland. Wade, Bosh and James is going to be the greatest display of basketball in the history of the world.

11. Lebron James Negative Verbatim LeBron James: Worst Human in Sports? He destroyed the city of Cleveland. I will hate him to my grave. LeBron is now the guy you openly root against. If he leaves Cleveland tomorrow night, he'll have needlessly strung along an entire fanbase and given them the middle finger by making their breakup spectacularly public. If he stays, he'll have spent two years cockteasing the rest of the world about going somewhere else when he probably never wanted to leave Ohio to begin with. There's no end result tomorrow that makes LeBron a sympathetic figure. He's already gone past the point of no return. He's a **********. Fitting that his most memorable career moment will come when he doesn't even take a ****ing shot. He's a guy that cares more about the end result of playing basketball – massive, unending adulation – than he does actual basketball. Those 3, including Lebron James, are killing my favorite sport. There is no loyalty only self absorbed assholes deciding where they are going to play. The inmates are definitely running the asylum. I hate Lebron James so much. I just hope clevelandcavs will survive.

12. People are both loving and hating James on Facebook – mostly hate

14. Majority of current Youtube uploads are negative..

15. Conclusions Lebron’s decision to leave Cleveland, and the manner he announced it, flipped his profile to a high negative footprint. Neutral sentiment is surprisingly high, as this is a pretty emotional topic The velocity spike lasted only a day, and diminished trending toward previous normal levels within 3 days. “Hate” and “sad” were terms that grew quickly in volume when used in context with “Lebron James”, even eclipsing “basketball”. This topic has evolved away from basketball into athletes and attitudes in professional sports. “ESPN” and “Miami” were mentioned in context in a much lower volume, as the negative feedback was directed more at Lebron James rather than the host and the new team.