We often counsel clients against “greenwashing,” the practice of using activities that only appear to be environmentally responsible as a shield from criticism. Counsel such as this clearly has not reached NBA star LeBron James or any of his handlers.

While Lebron’s hour-long infomercial Thursday night on ESPN doesn’t have an environmental twist to it and, hence, is not greenwashing, it could be called “community washing” or maybe “charity washing.”

Drawing into sharp focus characteristics that most of us hate about spoiled, millionaire athletes, Lebron’s camp chose to spend an hour during prime time to extol the virtues of their client prior to revealing the choice of where he’ll play next season. All of this in front of a group of kids and a Boys and Girls Club logo.

Thursday morning Lebron notified the Miami Heat, his free-agent choice among five suitors that included his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, that he was heading to Miami to play next season.

“I will take my talents to South Beach,” he boldly declared on ESPN.

Here is the rub: Aside from the blatant arrogance of the sideshow on ESPN, LeBron failed to notify the Cavs, his hometown team for which he’s played for the last seven seasons, of his decision. They were left to learn of his decision the same way I was, sitting on the couch, watching ESPN.

It is clear that Team LeBron was trying to leverage the Boys and Girls Club affiliation to shield them from any criticism. Their effort failed, as Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s open letter to his team’s fans and the venom of the blogosphere will attest.

Rule #5 of our Rules of the Road for Reputation Management states, “What you do is more important than what you say.” In other words, transparency rules.

There was nothing transparent about LeBron’s vanity exercise on Thursday. And the world appears to be calling him on it.