...to try to lure LeBron James to the New York Knicks

https://decider.com/2021/04/28/james-gandolfini-tony-soprano-knicks-lebron-james/

Tony and Carmela Soprano were part of a 10-minute all-star video -- also featuring Donald Trump, Robert De Niro and Spike Lee -- to the then-Cleveland Cavaliers player, who was seeking a new team. Falco discussed the video on Chuck D's new podcast, Shattered: Hope, Heartbreak and the New York Knicks. “I couldn’t believe that it didn’t work,” said Falco. “Not so much because of The Sopranos. I just thought, it’s New York. How does anyone say no to New York, for God’s sake? But he did!”

t72kT7h08EA


The footage begins around 9:33

Long-lost video of James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano three years after The Sopranos finale resurfaces (https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/newly-discovered-video-tony-soprano-lebron-james-edie-falco-1235005289/)

The late Gandolfini and Edie Falco reprised their HBO roles as Tony and Carmela Soprano in a 2010 video made to lure LeBron James to the New York Knicks. The video marked Gandolfini’s final appearance as Tony three years before his death in 2013. Other celebrities also participated, including Harvey Weinstein and Spike Lee. Former ESPN star Pablo Torre unearthed the video for his Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast (https://twitter.com/pablofindsout/status/1780189644803715473?). As The Sopranos expert Alan Sepinwall points out, "this part of the video raises many more questions than it answers," (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t72kT7h08EA&t=576s) including: "Why would the Knicks choose two characters so closely associated with New Jersey — at a time when a different NBA franchise, the Nets, still played in the Garden State — as part of a pitch for LeBron to come to the Big Apple?"