Nike decided to terminate their partnership with Kyrie Irving after controversy surrounding him arose following social media posts that some felt were antisemitic. Since then, the media may not be covering it but if you stayed up to date with Kyrie’s socials pages he’s spent so much time since then trying to own up for his mistake and apologize.

As you may know Nike has now begun pushing Ja Morant as the next big face of their brand, following the buildup to his first signature shoe dropping. Morant would be the first generation Z athlete to have a signature Nike shoe. While this sounds good for Nike on paper I think in light of recent things Morant has been accused of, i.e. assaulting a 17 year old, this may be a mistake on Nike’s part.

Nike’s statement on Ja Morant: “We appreciate Ja’s accountability and that he is taking the time to get the help he needs. We support his prioritization of his well-being.”

via Shams Charania

I’m just trying to wrap my head around how Nike can support Morant who is over here trying to act hard “thug life”, getting into fights with store employees and minors at the basketball court, and flexing guns. Apparently Nike sees this as setting a good example for kids to make him a face of the brand. On the other hand, they axe Kyrie despite the fact that Kyrie isn’t going around assaulting people or flexing guns. He simply made some terrible statements on social media and took accountability for it. To add even more fuel to the fire, Morant faces the potential for a 50 game suspension if it’s proven he brought the gun on the team plane. The NBA basically set its standard as 50 games with anything related to guns in team facilities after the Arenas situations back in the day. I wonder how Nike will deal with potential backlash for being hypocritical in who they support.