"You're the baddest": Nike hypes up Kevin Durant by responding to his IG story with a billboard in viral marketing move

Nike celebrated Kevin Durant's greatness with the viral marketing move. The sports giant hyped up Team USA's all-time leading scorer with a billboard displaying a solid caption. This comes after the brand released a 'Winning isn't for everyone' commercial featuring the 2x NBA champion soon after he surpassed WNBA icon and 4x Olympics gold medalist Lisa Leslie.

Durant had earlier taken to Instagram to ask Nike as to why he was not included in their latest commercial campaign. He gave them a not-so-subtle reminder that he was part of the Team USA unit since the 2012 London Olympics in a series of posts. And Nike duly made up for it soon after.

The billboards read, "Is KD a bad person? No, he's the baddest." The video includes Durant in the "Winning Isn't For Everyone" campaign with snippets from his Team USA run from the 2024 Olympics.

Kevin Durant inked a lifetime deal with Nike in 2023 and became the third basketball player to sign such a contract after Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

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Kevin Durant responds to Lisa Leslie after she congratulates him for breaking her record

Kevin Durant entered Tuesday's quarterfinal contest against Brazil just six points less than Lisa Leslie's 488 career Olympic points. He finished the game with 11 points coming off the bench as Team USA blitzed to a dominant 122-87 win and clinched the semifinal berth.

Soon after, Leslie took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate Durant, and the Suns forward responded with a heartfelt reply, while also lavishing praise on the former LA Sparks superstar.

"Records are meant to be broken, I’ll hold on to this until another great comes along and passes me up…Lisa Leslie you are the gold standard in basketball, I appreciate your love and support throughout the years..much love to you always…it’s all about the gold baby. Let’s get it fellas"

Durant and USA will face Nikola Jokic and Serbia in Thursday's semifinals. Should they get past that threat, they will take on the winner of the game between France and Germany for the gold medal. A win in the Final will see them win their fifth gold medal in a row and will be Kevin Durant's fourth. He has already bagged gold from his Olympic appearances at the London Games in 2012, Rio in 2016, and Tokyo in 2020.