He became a league-wide pariah burningbridges in Cleveland and many other NBA markets with his decision (James likely set a record for having his jersey torched the most times).
Over the last 20 years I have hired a lawyer a handful of times, most recently when I changed jobs (see my post How to Quit Your Job Without Burning Your Bridges).
The Manchester United deal, announced around the same time as these disruptive pronouncements, was supposed to provide an innovative, positive way forward partly as an alternative to the bridges that Ewanick simultaneously was burning.
In the wake of the fierce debate surrounding the potential establishment of an Islamic center a few blocks from Ground Zero, as well as the recent threat by a pastor of a small fringe evangelical church to hold a public Koran burning, there has been much talk about building bridges and interfaith dialogue.