A very good question. It'll be interesting to see, given that OU is supposed to be pretty good this season.
One point that I've seen made (about the sports media in genefral, although ESPN certainly leads the charge) is that the media today constantly builds athletes up so they can be torn down when something goes wrong. The more an athlete is built up, the bigger the story when the athlete falls from grace. It happened with Kobe, it happened with Bonds. Not to say LeBron is going to take a fall, but the media are going to be giddy if it ever does happen.