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Just in case you thought the hype surrounding the Miami Heat’s recent free agent acquisitions might simmer down a little once games start: ESPN has hired the “world’s greatest living authority on LeBron James” — Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Brian Windhorst — to join a staff devoted to writing only about the Heat.
“The Heat Index” will follow the team’s superstars– okay, it will follow LeBron James and every so often mention Dwyane Wade– on and off the court. It will also have a feature called “Heat Tweets”, which, yes, will collect any Tweet written by the team’s players.
Especially during the “Decision” debacle, Windhorst’s articles have a somewhat scathing quality— and ESPN is notoriously cuddly towards LeBron, so this could get interesting.
In late July, ESPN.com attempted to kill a story from a reporter who observed LeBron partying at a hedonistic Las Vegas club. The reporter didn’t properly identify himself, his editors explained. You have to wonder: with ESPN essentially paying Windhorst to stalk LeBron, what happens when he sees something “unauthorized”?
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