Star of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, is not pleased with the University of Alabama’s latest endeavor.

Recently, the University of Alabama aired a new series called “Shop Talk”. The video features Alabama’s head football coach, Nick Saban, Julio Jones, and other former Alabama football players having an open, candid conversation, in a barbershop setting. In February, Saban opened a barbershop called “Bama Cuts” in the footballs team’s Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility.

LeBron James saw the video and was upset. In 2014, James and business partner Maverick Carter started a multimedia company called “Uninterrupted”. Lebron came to Carter and said “I’m tired of my words being chopped and diced and put out. I talk for 20 minutes and they only show the headline.” Tired of his, and other athlete’s words being handpicked and distorted “Uninterrupted” was born. Through this company the two developed a show called the “The Shop” where athletes could detail first-hand accounts of events that happened in their lives.

The first episode of “The Shop” aired in 2017 during the NBA Finals. The episode, which received 4 million views through the company’s website and ESPN’s YouTube channel, featured James and other high-profile sports figures having a free-flowing conversation while getting their hair cut in a barbershop.

On Monday, April 2, “Uninterrupted” sent Alabama a letter that addressed concerns over “Uninterrupted’s” intellectual property. The letter stated in-part, “[y]our continued exploitation of ‘Shop Talk’ infringes ‘Uninterrupted’s’ copyright, trademark rights and other valuable intellectual property rights in ‘The Shop’ and significantly damages ‘Uninterrupted’s’ commercial prospects for ‘The Shop.'”

Saban, not one to shy away from the press, commented on the issue and said “I think LeBron James is a great player. There’s been at least 20 barbershop-type things I’ve seen. I didn’t even know he had one. I’m sorry anybody could be offended by something we were just trying to have fun with. I enjoyed it and we’re going to continue to do it.”

LeBron, a little annoyed with Saban’s comments said “that’s exactly what I would think he would say. I built Uninterrupted for a reason and for us athletes to have a platform to be able to speak about whatever we want to talk about. I respect him as a coach, but I’ll be damned if I’ll allow someone to use our platform or try to do the same thing we’re doing and just think it’s OK. So, the lawyers will figure it out.”

Josh Tarnow, head of Uninterrupted’s legal and business affairs wrote that they would be open to a “conversation [with Alabama] about how to address Uninterrupted’s concerns amicably.” In a statement issued April 2, to ESPN, Monica Watts, associate vice president of communications for Alabama said “[w]e are in the midst of reviewing this matter, which just came to our attention this morning.”

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