Cleveland Businesses Turn LeBron James Fury Into Cash

(July 10) -- When LeBron James finally announced he was leaving Cleveland for Miami, many Cavalier fans were furious.

Now, some businesses in Cleveland are trying to turn that anger into money. And there's plenty of rage to go around.

In McNulty's Bier Markt in Ohio City, handing over a LeBron jersey got you a free beer Friday night, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer. The bartenders shredded the jerseys on the spot with a pair of garden shears.

Some businesses in Cleveland are trying to turn the anger over LeBron James' leaving into money

Mark Duncan, AP

Workmen remove a large mural of NBA basketball star LeBron James from a building in downtown Cleveland on Saturday. Some businesses are trying to turn the anger over the basketball star's leaving into money.

At Medina's Nifty Nerd computer services company, a LeBron jersey gets you a $23 credit for services. Owner Anton Gorkavchuk says he may send the shirts overseas "to people who don't know how badly he betrayed us." The Great Lakes Brewing Co., a Cleveland brewery, soon plans to put out a special bitter ale in honor of James --- called Quitness.

"Emotions are a very, very powerful force," Derek Rucker, a marketing professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, told The Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Anger is an approach-oriented emotion. It's about taking action, doing something."

The LeBron saga drew to a close on Thursday night when the player announced, live on ESPN, that he was joining Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, breaking the hearts of thousands of Cleveland fans.

Even more controversially, he shrugged off any suggestion that his decision would hurt the Cavalier faithful. In his words, basketball "is a business."

Still, not all businesses will gain equally. Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal warned that LeBron's "nationally televised orgy of misjudgments" could hurt a lot of brands, including the player's.

"The fans may not get it?" Rosenthal wrote. "You know what those fans also may not get? The Big Macs and Nikes that James endorses.

"The NBA, too, may have a very deep PR hole from which to dig itself out."