Alabama Crimson Tide head football coach Nick Saban has no plans of abandoning "Shop Talk," despite a letter from LeBron James' multimedia platform Uninterrupted citing copyright infringement, trademark rights and other valuable intellectual property rights.
The trailer for "Shop Talk," which was posted by the Crimson Tide's twitter account, features former Alabama star Julio Jones and Saban chopping it up in a barbershop setting. According to the letter sent by Uninterrupted, "Shop Talk" infringes upon Uninterrupted's copyright for "The Shop," a similar web series which was developed by LeBron and business partner Maverick Carter.
On Tuesday, Saban addressed the letter and made it clear that the videos won't stop.
"I think LeBron James is a great player," the coach said, according to ESPN. "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."
After the Cleveland Cavaliers' 112-106 victory over the Toronto Raptors last night, LeBron was told of Saban's comments to which he responded, "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."
"I mean, I think you guys know Nick Saban more than me from a media perspective," he said, per ESPN. "You guys know Nick Saban more than I do, so 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."
According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, LeBron doesn't have a leg to stand on.
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