Crawford Dunks on LeBron; eBaum Nation Dunks on TMZ

It was only a matter of time before video of Xavier guard Jordan Crawford‘s dunk over National Basketball Association superstar and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James at the LeBron James Skills Academy at the University of Akron earlier this month surfaced, but two in the same day?

To recount, Crawford dunked on James during a pickup game at the camp, and, ESPN.com and AP reported at the time, a Nike representative confiscated tapes of the dunk after conferring with James.

Nike claimed that the tapes were taken away because taping after-hours pickup games at the camp is not allowed, but Gary Parrish, who was at the camp on a free-lance assignment for ESPNU, told CBSSports.com he had been filming all day and was only approached after Crawford’s dunk over James.

Just when things were starting to quiet down, TMZ posted a poor-quality video of the dunk Wednesday, but it was then trumped by eBaum Nation, which posted a far better-quality video (see below).

Mike Parker, who works in the content department at eBaum, told Deadspin in an email:

We did purchase the video, for an undisclosed amount, from a local cameraman who travels to different basketball camps across the country. The deal has been in the works for a week or two now, and with the TMZ announcement, we obviously wanted to seal the deal ASAP.

Ironically, the hype over the video was much greater than the dunk itself.

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