Nike Turns Michael Kidd-Gilchrist And Other NCAA Hoop Stars Into Stock Photograph Models [Updated]
Nike decided to celebrate Selection Sunday by tweeting out a series of stylish posters with dumb tag lines that were made for each team in the tournament. Here's one for the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders:
Neat! There's only one problem: that's not a Middle Tennessee player in the picture. It's former Kentucky Wildcat Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and according to Nike, he plays for quite a few teams in this year's tournament.
Here he is "bringing the 'Nois" for Illinois:
And here he is roaring in an Ohio State uniform.
It goes on. Even weirder is the fact that MKG isn't the only player to have received this kind of treatment from Nike. Here's someone whom we think is former Kentucky forward Terrence Jones being used on the Duke poster and the Oregon poster. A quick scroll through Nike's timeline reveals many other examples of one player being used to represent multiple teams.
It's all very bizarre, to say the least, and it's hard to imagine Nike thinking nobody would notice what they were doing. Or maybe they just don't give a shit. It is Nike, after all.
Update: As commenter ts1982 points out, Nike was likely just trying to get around certain NCAA Bylaws.
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