Nick Saban: 'Shop Talk' will continue, despite objections; LeBron James responds

Tom Gatto

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Nick Saban: 'Shop Talk' will continue, despite objections; LeBron James responds image

Alabama football coach Nick Saban doesn't appear to be concerned about a possible legal fight with LeBron James and his multimedia company, Uninterrupted.

Saban told reporters Tuesday that the program will continue to do online "Shop Talk" video segments, which Uninterrupted claimed infringe on the copyright of its "The Shop" segments.

MORE: Kiffin says Saban 'ain't slowing down'

"I think LeBron James is a great player. There's been at least 20 'Barbershop'-type things I've seen on TV. I didn't know anybody owned that. I didn't even know he had one. I'm sorry that anybody could be offended by something that were just having fun with," Saban said at the end of his session with the media at spring practice.

Saban then dropped the gauntlet with his closing statement:

"I enjoyed it and we're going to continue to do it."

Lawyers for Uninterrupted claimed in a letter last week that Alabama was engaged in "exploitation" of the "Shop Talk" concept and asked for a conversation with the university "before rushing into legal proceedings." Here's a look at one of the videos that prompted the action.

James responded to Saban's comment after the Cavaliers' 112-106 victory over the Raptors on Tuesday.

“That’s exactly what I would think [Saban] would say,” James said. “But I built Uninterrupted for a reason, for us athletes to have a platform to be able to speak your mind about whatever we want to talk about. I respect him as a coach, but I’ll be damned if I allow someone to use our platform or try to do the same thing we’re doing and just think it’s OK. The lawyers will figure it out."

(Video provided by Spencer Davies of Basketball Insiders).

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.