LeBron James has been one of the biggest stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics despite being almost 40. Tennis legend Serena Williams highlighted him on social media by sharing a photo of the LA Lakers star's statue at the Nike House in Paris.
In a post on Instagram stories, Williams uploaded a photo of an orange statue of "The King" in front of the Nike House in Paris. She tagged the athletic brand, as well as the American flag bearer for this year's Olympics.
It has been a rough year for Nike in terms of sales, as per Bloomberg. The company banked on the Olympics to revitalize business, spending millions on ads. They also have a lot of sponsored athletes in Paris, including most players on the Team USA roster.
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LeBron James statue part of Nike's Olympic campaign
According to Bloomberg, Nike is spending a lot of money in this year's Olympics to revitalize the sales of one of the biggest sports brands in the world. Nike's stock went down by as much as 20% in June, which was around $28 billion in market value.
The company has taken steps to alleviate losses, including a $2 billion cost-cutting plan that has laid off about 2% of its employees. They also allocated a lot of money to the Olympics, which is called the most investment and biggest moment for Nike by its president of consumer, Heidi O’Neill.
One of these investments is a bunch of statues of athletes like LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, Sha'Carri Richardson, Beatrice Vio, Kylian Mbappe and Alexia Putellas. They were first installed in Paris' Palais Brongniart in April, as per the Sports Business Journal.
Nike added more statues, including for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce alongside James at the Nike House in Paris.
LeBron James leads Team USA in win over Puerto Rico, will face Brazil in QF
Team USA had a ticket to the knockout rounds ahead of their game against Puerto Rico on Saturday. Nevertheless, they were not going to let anything slip, with LeBron James leading the way with 10 points, six rebounds and eight assists in 17 minutes.
Anthony Edwards went bonkers with 26 points, three rebounds and three assists, while Joel Embiid had 15 points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks after a DNP against South Sudan. Jayson Tatum added a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The United States finished the group stage with a 3-0 record and face Brazil in the quarterfinals. The knockout phase begins on August 6 at the Accor Arena in Paris.
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