Source: Tim Clayton – Corbis / Getty
A m I a bad person? That’s the question posed by a new Nike ad, “Winning Isn’t For Everyone” that equates extreme competitiveness to character deficiencies, voiced by actor Willem Dafoe. In the commercial, he asks if he’s a bad person because he wants to win, win, win, and doesn’t care about anything else.
“I’m obsessive, I’m deceptive,” Dafoe’s voice intones, as the ad shows clips of Kobe Bryant, Sha’Carri Richardson, LeBron James, Serena Williams, A’ja Wilson, Victor Wembenyama and other Nike athletes.
“I don’t respect you. I have no empathy,” the commercial continues.
One person who’s not in the ad is longtime Nike athlete Kevin Durant, despite playing in his fourth Olympics and being a Nike athlete for the past 17 years. The Phoenix Suns star posted pictures on his Instagram Story showing him in Team USA gear at multiple Olympics along with a question.
“@nike tell me, Am I a bad person?????”
The question was accompanied by a picture of him in a USA basketball Nike logo T. In subsequent stories, he added more pics with additional captions.
“Been with y’all every step of the way @nike,” he posted a picture of himself with Team USA players Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant with their gold medals around their necks in 2012. In yet another, he added a pic with Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes during the 2016 Games, captioning it, “Even during the quarantine Olympics @nike.”
KD may be in his feelings but the response to the ad suggests that excluding him might have an upside. The commercial’s ‘winning at all costs’ message appeared to some as a jarring one for the Games which celebrates the coming together of athletes from around the world in a unified Olympic spirit.
“As a high school coach trying to teach good sportsmanship…thanks for making harder for me,” one YouTube comment read. “All were signs of a champion accept lack of respect type comments. I get what they were trying to say, but they said it wrong in my opinion.”
“This is the wrong message for our times. Yes, you are a bad person if you have this mindset, athlete or not,” another comment read.
“This ad had so much potential to be inspirational,” another poster wrote. “The “i have no empathy” part was not it. with how negative and self-centered people have become in this day and age, you’d think they’d promote something more uplifting. i’m sick of this behavior. you can be ambitious and still maintain your compassion and humanity. otherwise you’ll lose yourself.”
So Kevin Durant, maybe Nike thought to leave you out, not because they don’t respect your talent but because they don’t think you’re a bad person. Something to ponder.
In any case, Team USA kicks off their defense of the gold medal on Sunday, July 28 vs. Serbia at 11:15 a.m. You can watch on NBA, Peacock, or catch the highlights on NBC Sports’ YouTube channel.
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