Maverick Carter, LeBron James‘ BFF and LRMR Marketing CEO, told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that he could have handled The Decision better.

“The execution could have been a little better and I take some of the blame for that,” Carter said in a story that aired Wednesday on CNN’s Rick’s List.

The Decision did great ratings for ESPN, but sparked a backlash that has damaged James’ reputation heading into the upcoming NBA season.

Carter thinks race played a factor in the negative reaction generated towards James when he decided to take his talents to South Beach to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

“It definitely played a role in some of the stuff coming out of the media, things that were written for sure,” Carter said.

James chimed in as well with a similar stance as Carter.

“I think so at times,” James said. “It’s always, you know, a race factor.”

Whether race was a factor or not, his comments will only fuel the media as we approach the start of the NBA season on Oct. 26.

Deadspin.com, the sports blog owned by Gawker Media, has apparently obtained internal financial documents from a number of Major League Baseball teams. As is the Deadspin way, editor Tommy Craggs is posting the documents online for all to see. Craggs says analysis will come later “another set of statements,” but for now it is just the raw data, presuming it is the real deal, of course.

The financials of major sports teams are usually kept very private. Once in a while a big business deal will become public, with some leaked figures, but the amount of data obtained by Deadspin is staggering by comparison.

You can be sure SportsNewser will be combing through the documents and will highlight any major TV or media deals.

Deadspin’s posts are, for all intents and purposes, unprecedented in the sports journalism field. You can call it the “Wikileak-ification” of the media. Read more

In his monologue last night, Jay Leno talked up several media stories, including fired ESPN analyst Steve Phillips, declining newspaper circulation, and the White House war on Fox News… complete with a presidential prop:

But what was not included in the NBC clip was Leno joking about MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer who last week introduced Al Sharpton, when she was really talking to Jesse Jackson.

“Even worse than that,” Leno joked, “after he told her I’m Jesse Jackson, she said, “Are you the one that’s between Jermaine and Tito?”