NBA superstar LeBron James has been in San Diego for the last few days, holding his annual “King’s Academy” basketball camp, which began July 24 and ended Tuesday. The camp was held at UCSD and hosted hundreds of young people, all who had a chance to meet James, practice their skills, play in scrimmages, and watch exhibitions among the league’s counselors.

But that’s not the real story. Forgive me for burying the lead here, but the LeBron James Image Train has officially jumped the track.

I showed up on the last day of the camp, hoping to do a quick little recap, talk about the camp, maybe score a few minutes with The King himself. After all, I’m a hoops head and getting at least an audience with The Chosen One would be legit.

It was going to be pretty cut and dry. I’d ask LeBron why he chose San Diego to host his annual camp (out of all the places in the country). I’d ask him about his new Shaq-size teammate, the offseason moves in the East (mainly Vince Carter to Orlando and Rasheed Wallace to Boston) and how he thinks the Cavs stack up. I’d ask him about the recent contract negotiations with Cleveland.

There would be no mention, whatsoever, of “The Dunk.”

Yes, that dunk. The dunk that everyone talked about ad nauseam after it happened. The dunk that bore footage that Nike officials confiscated from a young videojournalist who was filming during the annual LeBron James Skills Academy in early July.

I wasn’t gonna’ talk about that dunk. You know why? Because it’s not a big deal. It’s basketball. It happens all the time, to the best players in the world. It’s even happened to James himself countless times. Need proof? WITNESS this.

So when Damon Haley, the man in charge of media access for the James camp — the same man I traded e-mails with a week before confirming both my attendance and the camp’s cooperation — came out from the bowels of RIMAC Arena and told me they weren’t allowing media, I was puzzled.San Diego: sdnn-opinion34

“OK,” I said, “do you have a fact sheet or anything?” (I was told one would be sent to me. It’s either lost somewhere in cyberspace or isn’t even in Draft mode, yet.)

“Do you have a camera?” Haley asked.

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

“We can’t let you shoot or film while LeBron is still in the building,” he said.

“Oookaaaay? Why not?” I asked.

At which point, Haley shot me a look and repeated what he just said, only slower and louder, like I was a foreign traveler.

“We can’t let you film while LeBron is still in the building.”

“If I give you my camera, can I get a couple minutes with LeBron?” I asked.

“No, he’s not doing any interviews,” Haley said.

Wait, why did I come out here again?

Sure, I could have spent a few minutes chatting up some kids at the camp about their experiences and what they learned, but it would have been the same thing, “LeBron is so cool. I got his autograph on my shoe. And he talked to us about working hard and doing our best and yada, yada, yada…”

Look, I’m not bummed that I didn’t get to talk to James. I’ll talk to him at some point in the future. But what I am bummed about is how he is letting one little piece of footage ruin his reputation. He and the people in his circle are so concerned with his image, that they are taking everything to the ultimate extreme. And it’s getting out of control.

Really? No cameras? You’re the best player on the planet and you’re worried that someone might snap a photo or take some video of an 11-year-old draining a jumper over you?

At this point, with the PR hit LeBron has taken over the now infamous Crawford dunk, he should be opening himself up to all of the positive media attention as possible. Especially, after his arch rival Kobe Bryant put him on blast last week with this footage, proclaiming to a young camper, “You ain’t dunkin’ on me at my camp.”

LeBron needs to realize that no matter what goes on in these insignificant offseason camps and scrimmages and public appearances, he’s still LeBron Freakin’ James. Nothing that happens matters in the least. But putting up the wall and limiting people’s ability to provide positive publicity, all in the name of fear, and narcissism and selfish pride, well, it’s doing more harm than good.

Nike is right. We are all witnesses. Witnesses to one summer when one of the most likeable players in the league got too big for himself.

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