Remember that it was Kobe who alerted Dwyane Wade to the dunk and who encouraged him to "give [LeBron] stuff about this." And now here, via The Baseline, is video of Kobe at his own camp, saying:

I'll tell you one thing: You ain't dunking on me in my camp.

To which the campers responded with a loud, sustained, "Ooooh." Look at what you've gone and done, Nike. You've made LeBron look like a glowering corporate pout, and you've allowed Kobe — work-doin', self-mythologizin' Kobe Bryant — to pretend to be some puckish blithe spirit, which he most definitely isn't. Lame. Of course, it should also be noted that Kobe was speaking to what appears to be a gym full of 14-year-olds, who, let's be honest, probably haven't dunked on anything not made by Nerf.

Video: Kobe "You Ain't Dunkin' On Me At My Camp" [You Been Blinded]
Kobe Weighs in on LeBron's Missing Dunk [The Baseline]
Kobe Leads 'Free Jordan Crawford' Charge Against LeBron [FanHouse]

Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer got a statement (and then went out of his way to leap chivalrously to LeBron's defense):

"Nike has been operating basketball camps for the benefit of young athletes for decades and has longstanding policies in place regarding what events are open and closed to media coverage," Nike spokesman KeJuan Wilkins said.

"Unfortunately, for the first time in four years, two journalists did not respect our 'no videotaping' policy at an after-hours pick-up game Monday evening following the LeBron James Skills Academy."

This runs counter to everything freelance videographer Ryan Miller said yesterday. On a Syracuse.com blog, Miller provides a PDF of the camp's media policy (which doesn't mention any special restrictions on videotaping) and notes that the pickup game was not, in fact, after hours:

It was during the regularly scheduled "College Workout #3" portion of the LeBron James Skills Academy. That session ran from 8:30-10:15 on Monday night and the filming took place during that designated time slot.

So now we've apparently come to the fun stage of the story where the corporate factotum starts fibbing like mad, and the newspaper dudes condescend to the whole Internet. Awesome. And all we ever wanted was a grainy YouTube clip of the best basketball player in the world being turned momentarily into Shawn Bradley. We'll never get that now, but here, at least, is Jordan Crawford — suddenly the most famous baller in Xavier history, though he's yet to play a minute for the Musketeers — bearing witness:

I came down the middle. He just happened to be there. ... I was geeked about it, more than anything, just because it's LeBron.

Video of the interview below:

Nike officials claim media rules prompted confiscation of video of college player's pickup-game slam over LeBron James [Plain Dealer]
Ryan Miller's response to Nike's LeBron James Skills Academy statement [Syracuse.com]
EARLIER:
The Dunk Was "As Good As It Could've Been Hyped Up To Be"
LeBron Gets Dunked On; None Of Us Are Witnesses

PHOTOSHOP: Submitted by commenter XavierMusketeer

Miller spoke with WHTK-AM in Rochester, N.Y., where he apparently used to intern. You can listen to the podcast here. A rough transcript:

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.

Miller goes on to talk about how he lived with his college roommate's grandmother last summer but now Ben Howland is paying for his dinner or something, so life is all skittles and beer, even if he is getting his stuff jacked by a gargantuan shoe company and the best basketball player in the world.

Podcasts [WHTK]
EARLIER: LeBron Gets Dunked On; None Of Us Are Witnesses

CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish has the story:

Turns out, there were at least two cameras rolling Monday night when Crawford dunked on James during a pick-up game here at the LeBron James Skills Academy. It was a two-handed jam, the kind that would've circulated quickly on YouTube. But Nike officials eliminated that possibility shortly after the dunk happened by allegedly confiscating tapes from various cameramen.

Freelance photographer Ryan Miller was one of the cameramen shooting the game.

He told CBSSports.com that Nike Basketball Senior Director Lynn Merritt took his tape.

"He just said, 'We have to take your tape,'" Miller said. "They took it from other guys, too."

Worth noting is that there is no policy against filming at the LeBron James Skills Academy, and Miller said he had been filming all day without incident. Nobody ever told him to stop. Nobody ever said there was a problem ... until after Crawford dunked on James.

"LeBron called Lynn over and told him something," Miller said. "That's how I knew his name was Lynn. LeBron said, 'Hey, Lynn. Come here.'"

Minutes later, Miller said Merritt demanded his tape.

"There's nothing I can think of besides LeBron just not wanting it online," Miller said. "It's a good story to tell people, I guess. But then again, I'm kind of pissed. I lost my tape."

If that's how it went down — if King James really sent a Swoosh drone to go all FBI-in-Dealey-Plaza on the cameramen — then that's surpassingly lame. Give the kid his YouTube moment. Congratulate him. Shake him by the hand. Or, you know, don't.

Nike does not want you to see that dunk [CBSSports.com]