Coming Friday: The LeBron-ESPN collision of collusion

The Amazing LeBronathan, enabled by the line-crossing strength of ESPN's world-wide hype machine, will snatch a prime hour of our summer's leisure tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time to announce something that will probably take approximiatly six seconds. With Jim Gray by his side.

New-age ethics, protocol, narcissism, arrogance, ego, control freakishness, grandstanding and creating a situation where your own reporters have to work against your own pimping aside, what's wrong with this picture?

ESPN's Michael Wilbon, who will interview James a day after he did the Dwayne Wade-Chris Bosh interviews live for the network, said it Wednesday on "Pardon the Interruption" in defense of him and the network: "Any network executive that says he or she wouldn't try to get this for his or her network is a liar, plain and simple ... My problem with what the network has done is sort of putting it out there 48 hours early. ... I understand you want to build viewership and there are different things in the new media age, but I would say I don't want to undermine the reporters trying to get a scoop ... though apparently, those reporters have not been stopped or in any way hindered from doing their work in reporting stories. But this thing is now more controversial, which will attract viewers, will it not?"

Hope not.

The Boston Herald's Steve Buckley has written that "The Decision" is ESPN's "own version of WrestleMania ... (but) the difference between WWE and ESPN is that Vince McMahon has long since admitted that what he does is contrived, scripted and fake. ESPN, on the other hand, wants you to believe that they're just there to cover breaking news."

We'll observe and comment later .... brace yourself. As long as it doesn't pre-empt "Jeopardy!" on KABC Channel 7.