Microsoft shuts down LeBron James

In a move that might be a lesson for my beloved (and, just occasionally, beloathed) Golden State Warriors this Friday, Microsoft has shut down LeBron James.

Two years ago, MSN and the Cleveland Cavalier superhero who looks 35 and is, allegedly, 13 or 14, announced big plans.

Now the deal, just as that of Buick and Tiger Woods, has floated down the Styx with Charon the boatman.

While no one believed that Tiger Woods would ever have allowed even his Secret Service doppelganger to actually own a Buick, there was at least some reason to conjecture that a LeBron James and MSN combination might be credible.

Indeed, Microsoft produced LeBronJames.com, a site that won a Webby and the hearts and fingers of at least some children.

Now the URL has been shunted into the GoDaddy parking lot, which seems to resemble the part of the Arizona desert where they store all those unwanted 747s.

The problem was that Microsoft could never really decide what to do with LeBron. (Get him a decent point guard and power forward, even if you have to rename them Ballmer and Gates. That would have been good sponsorship.)

He was nothing more than a flicker in the 'I'm a PC' campaign, something for which he may be grateful in future times.

And now one will be left wondering whether some other large tech brand might find a use for LeBron's skills.

My guess is that they'll wait until he's with the sweetly desperate Knicks. Or, perhaps, until he's revealed his real age.