The good thing about flying and owning an iPad is that you get to watch all movies you wanted to see for so long. This time watched Hoop Dreams. A classic documentary about two young basketball players from the ghettos of Chicago trying to make it to the NBA. William Gates and Arthur Agee are followed from when they are 14 untill they are in their 20′s. You see them go through all sorts of struggles, both on and off the pitch.
The documentary lasts about 3 hours, but I wasn’t bored for a second. A very moving story. Check it out.
Two twelve year old New York kids and huge basketball fans, Jason and Corey Grant have turned social media to convince the NY Knicks to get LeBron James to join them. Poke NY has helped them create a very smart online and offline campaign. The idea is pretty simple. You just hit the NYheartLeBron button, whether this is on the website, by tweeting #NY<3LEBRON or hitting one of the #NY<3LEBRON buttons (find them here) in real life.
At the moment I am writing this, the button has been hit 1.284.411 times. I guess we can call this a success! Awesome idea and dito execution. Now lets see whether Lebron will sign up, to become the first social media scouted player in the NBA.
Meet Leroy Smith: The worlds most influential influencer of Michael Jordan. Leroy beat Michael Jordan in 10th grade for the varsity basketball team. By beating him, he has motivated Jordan to become the greatest basketball player ever. What a story! This totally modest and generous guy has now made his great lessons available for all of us! Go get your basketball on here and check out his books, instruction videos and other great stuff here! SHAZAM!!
P.S. No way that this is a new viral campaign by Nike…
I stumbled into this Nike basketball ad, which struck a chord with me. I assume this one was just available online, simply because of the length of it. But hey, who needs TV anyway?
I am not a great basketball fan, but it must be Marvin Gaye’s voice which wins me over. I’ve never heard anyone sing Star Spangled Banner whith so much soul and passion before (might be because I live in Amsterdam).
This as was made in the run up to the Beijing Olympics. The coach of the US basketball team used this version of the national anthem to inspire his team. He played this version of the song before a training session. Nike learned of this, and made it into a commercial using actual training footage.
Marvin Gaye sang this version of the national anthem in 1983, at an NBA All Stars game.
I dont know how they do it, but Nike seems to have mastered catching emotion in many of their ads.
No no no. I didn’t forget about him! This is the first ever Jordan commercial by Nike. The story behind this is an example of Nike’s marketing brilliance. When Nike introduced the shoe in 1985, it was the first multi-coloured shoe on the court. The director of the NBA actually banned the shoe, because it violated the dress code. Jordan would be fine a couple of thousand dollars each time he wore them during a game.
Instead of backing down, Nike encouraged Jordan to wear the shoe, and labeled it “The shoe banned by the NBA.” They turned the bann into their advantage, as the following commercial reveals…
Meet Leroy Smith: The worlds most influential influencer of Michael Jordan. Leroy beat Michael Jordan in 10th grade for the varsity basketball team. By beating him, he has motivated Jordan to become the greatest basketball player ever. What a story! This totally modest and generous guy has now made his great lessons available for all of us! 
