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After the Los Angeles Lakers cruised past the Minnesota Timberwolves in Tuesday’s season opener, Nike appeared to troll Timberwolves star guard Anthony Edwards on social media.
Following the Lakers’ 110-103 victory, Nike posted a tweet showing support for LeBron James while seemingly throwing shade at Edwards’ recent Adidas advertisement that featured him taking a lie detector test:
When the AE1 dropped last October, Adidas produced a “Sneak Diss” advertisement spot featuring Edwards declaring his debut sneaker to be better than the respective debut signature models for LeBron James (Nike), Ja Morant (Nike), Luka Dončić (Jordan) and LaMelo Ball (Puma). The original version of the spot censored those names, but an uncensored version was also published.
The ad made waves in the sneaker world and was reminiscent of the type of commercial that would’ve been produced during the height of the sneaker wars.
“They took a really big swing with that video where he’s calling out the other first signature models,” a sports marketing executive told Jon Springer of Ad Age in May. “They’re showing shoes from other brands in an Adidas commercial—it’s something a younger Nike might have done in the ’80s.”
However, the subtle shots don’t appear to have been well-received by Nike, and the company got the last laugh on Tuesday.
Edwards led the Timberwolves with 27 points in the loss to the Lakers but shot 10-of-25 from the field. The 23-year-old is now the unquestioned No. 1 option for Minnesota after the team traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks.
Edwards won’t get his chance for revenge until the Timberwolves and Lakers meet again on Dec. 2. For now, Minnesota will try to bounce back on Thursday against the Sacramento Kings.
