As mentioned by The New York Times yesterday, Nike is trying all kinds of new ways to promote the new LeBron James shoe. The most unique way is their sponsorship of "SportsCenter" tonight: The 6 p.m. show will be sponsored entirely by Nike and the LeBron shoe. We don't know if that means all the commercials will be by Nike, or if they're just gonna run a little Nike logo in the corner and have no commercials at all, but it is, as far as ESPN and Nike go, unprecedented.

Though you could have fooled us: We kind of thought last night's "SportsCenter" was sponsored by Nike, what with the big interview with all of LeBron's characters. (We do find those commercials pretty charming, we have to say.) And apparently Nike doesn't hold many grudges, or, at the very least, it's a different place now.

But yeah: LeBron's on the network tonight, the shoe's everywhere and the commercials are all Nike. It's like our Tiger Woods day, except you can't move the little LeBron character around.

Nike Reaches Deeper Into New Media To Find Young Buyers [New York Times]
ESPN Exposes NIKE [Siagon.com]

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