Kevin Durant’s Paris 2024 Debut Has CJ McCollum Cheekily Referencing His Omission From Nike’s Olympic Ad

Abhishek Dhariwal | 29/07/2024
Kevin Durant's Paris 2024 Debut Has CJ McCollum Cheekily Referencing His Omission From Nike's Olympic Ad

Nike’s marketing campaign for the Olympics has been flawless. Their Olympic commercial and slogan, ‘Winning isn’t for Everyone.’ was voiced over by one of the greatest on-screen presence in Willem Dafoe, the new Nike commercial features several athletes from around the world. But CJ McCollum only saw Kevin Durant’s absence from the ad, taking a cheeky shot at his fellow NBA vet.

Featuring the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Victor Wembanyama, Serena Williams, and even the late Kobe Bryant, the Nike commercial has everything one could ask for from an advertisement for the Olympics.

But KD’s absence is all that CJ McCollum could see. His reaction stems from KD’s near-perfect performance in his Olympic debut against Serbia yesterday. 

“I bet you @KDTrey5 will be in the next global Nike commercial .”

Durant came off the bench for Team USA and still ended up with the most points on the team. He finished the game with 23 points and 2 rebounds on 8-9 shooting from the field, going 5-5 from beyond the arc.

KD did not take part in any of the exhibition games for Team USA. A calf strain kept him out of the team’s rotation for the most part, but now that Durant was all healthy and ready to go, fans got to see what he could do on an international level.

Kevin Durant is a premier athlete for Nike, being one of three players with a lifetime deal. So, it was a little unusual to see the Slim Reaper not make a single appearance in the commercial.

Moreover, the Nike team managed to add some names and faces that were not a part of this year’s Olympic events. But the same level of courtesy wasn’t extended to the Phoenix Suns star.

After the commercial aired, Kevin Durant got a whiff of how he was not a part of the brand’s latest advertisement for the Olympics. Going onto Instagram to ask Nike a question, this is what KD had to say.

“@Nike tell me, Am I a bad person?????”

While it may not have been intentional, Durant decided to poke fun at the multi-billion dollar brand nonetheless. So, given that he wasn’t in this commercial, let’s see if CJ’s prediction of KD being in the next Olympic ad does come true; after four years.

Post Edited By: Sameen Nawathe
Kevin Durant

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Abhishek Dhariwal

A fan of Basketball since the late 2000s, Abhishek Dhaiwal has been covering the game for over five years. Having done his masters in Journalism and Mass Communication, Abhishek is an NBA sports journalist at The SportsRush. A fan of the San Antonio Spurs since the Tim Duncan era, Abhishek has an extensive knowledge of the sport and has covered more than 1500 articles. Having a firsthand experience of the sport, Abhishek has represented his city and state at a District and National level. And it is the same level of expertise he aims to bring while covering extensive topics both on and off the court of your favorite basketball stars.

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