Lebron James, who will be headed to the Miami Heat for the upcoming NBA season, was the most sought-after free agent since ITA Software.
The Decision, the hour-long ESPN broadcast last night which featured James revealing he will leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for South Beach to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, was witnessed by 7.3% of U.S. TV homes and was one of ESPN's top-rated shows of the year, according to USA Today.
Amidst all the drama of James' decision, as he was wooed by six teams, there were a couple of interesting twists for people who follow the travel industry.
Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, who's other hobby is serving as chairman and CEO of Carnival Corp., played an integral role in landing King James.
While the team cleared cap space to make room for James' salary, in the run-up to The Decision, Arison traveled to Cleveland, along with Heat president Pat Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra and former center Alonzo Mourning, in what turned out to be a successful business travel meet-up to sell James on Miami.
Arison and the rest of the group took almost three hours to make their pitch to James on July 1 in Cleveland.
It is not known whether favorite cruise destinations or mega-ships were topics of conversation.
With a cacophony of conflicting reports about where James would end up, the mystery wasn't solved until halfway into the ESPN broadcast July 8 when James proclaimed his allegiance to the Miami Heat.
ESPN brought in Microsoft, which has a self-proclaimed "decision engine" called Bing, as one of the prime sponsors of the show, aptly named The Decision.
Bing ran several advertisements during the broadcast, including the following one which at one point shows a Bing Travel display and urges viewers to "Check out bing.com/travel and try out Price Predictor!"
Here's the video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFlaIQCWZcA
Today, after The Decision and the burning of James' jersey by some looney ex-fans in Cleveland, James, who began tweeting July 6, urged his current fans on Twitter to visit his website for updates about his Miami decision.
And, Bing -- the Decision Engine -- is an advertiser on James' website.
James' decision process about whether or not he would leave Cleveland turned into a protracted affair.
The Bing search engine works much faster.