There was a supposed to be a new banner hung up by Nike this season but the Cleveland design officials rejected the idea.

James and Nike want to replace his landmark, arms-spread image with one of him standing barechested, his skin a scaley, armored texture, a basketball at his side. Over his left shoulder is the phrase “Prepare for combat,” topped by the Nike swoosh.

The image was designed for the video game generation, says David Sternberg from Gigantic Medina. He also mentions that Nike wants something new on the building as soon as possible.

The reason the idea was rejected was because the design had nothing to do with Cleveland nor the Cavaliers.  Another reason thrown out there was because the image of a tatted up LeBron James played into the stereo type of young black men.

Thanks to Plain Dealer for the story.