ESPN suspends Dan Le Batard for LeBron James billboard stunt

Dan Le Batard’s purchase of a billboard advertisement in Akron, sending a message to LeBron James from Miami, has resulted in ESPN pulling Le Batard off the air for two days. Here’s the official statement from ESPN.

Dan LeBatard will be off the air for two days, returning Monday. His recent stunt does not reflect ESPN’s standards and brand. Additionally, we were not made aware of his plans in advance.

Yup – the “billboard stunt”. Just realize how quickly ESPN acted to suspend Le Batard for this largely harmless action, compared to how long it took them to discipline Stephen A. Smith last week. Then again, they probably had an inkling of what was coming, given Le Batard’s attempt to buy a newspaper ad in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer last week.

I’d assume ESPN sent out a warning to him after that attempt and trolling, but let’s be honest – there was no way Le Batard was just going to just roll over on this situation. The man is a master troll – just look at some of his work from the NBA Playoffs earlier this year.

At the end of the day, this is just a silly overreaction by ESPN. But hey, Le Batard gets a four day weekend!