LeBron James believes that Alabama’s football program is offside. The Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star has an issue with Nick Saban, the University of Alabama football coach. It is not about something that Saban said but is about the vehicle he used to say.
In the previous week, the official Twitter handle for Alabama football released a trailer for “Shop Talk” with Julio Jones, Alabama alumnus joining in Saban and the other football players for a roundtable discussion in a barbershop setting.
James has earlier released two installments of web series “The Shop” on his multimedia platform “UNINTERRUPTED” and has filmed a third one that features the Cavaliers’ star along with his friends, sports and cultural figures and business associates having conversations while getting haircuts.
On Monday, Josh Tarnow, UNINTERRUPTED’s head of business and legal affairs sent a letter to the University of Alabama addressing copyright concerns. “The Shop” was created by James and Maverick Carter, UNINTERRUPTED co-founder. The show’s first episode that premiered during the 2017 NBA Finals generated approximately 4 million views across the UNINTERRUPTED platform and on ESPN’s official Youtube channel as well.
The letters read, “Your continued exploitation of ‘Shop Talk’ infringes ‘UNINTERRUPTED’s’ copyright, trademark rights and other valuable intellectual property rights in ‘The Shop’ and significantly damages ‘UNINTERRUPTED’s’ commercial prospects for ‘The Shop.’”
The letter also includes an invitation for a conversation with Alabama before “rushing into legal proceedings.” The Crimson Tide, who is also the winner of last three national championships with Saban at the helm, developed a barbershop called Baba Cuts in the football team’s Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility in February.
Monica Watts, Alabama’s associate vice president, stated to ESPN late on Monday afternoon that read “We are in the midst of reviewing this matter, which just came to our attention this morning.”
