You have to hand it to Nike’s creative team at Wieden+Kennedy, the agency certainly turns around a campaign as soon as the sports person or team in question lifts the winning trophy.
Dispensing with its typical modus operandi of pathos jam-packed with emotion, the brand’s latest offering plays valiantly in the humour-sphere.
The new work celebrates the Denver Nuggets’ first-ever win in the NBA Finals, the team winning the best of a five game series against the Miami Heat on Tuesday.
More specifically, the social media spot is an ode to Nuggets’ Serbian star, Nikola ‘The Joker’ Jokic (not to be mistaken with the tennis player with the same nickname.)
The Nike-sponsored and clad Jokic has endeared himself to basketball fans with his laidback attitude, dry humour and nonchalant attitude to the game in general.
After the Nuggets won the final – leaving most of Jokic’s teammates in tears – the 28-year-old was asked by media who’d flooded the court of his reaction to the win. Barely raising a smile, he said: “It’s good, it’s good. The job is done, we can go home now.”
Check out Nike’s homage to the man below:
Congrats to the Joker and the @nuggets on a franchise-first NBA Championship. pic.twitter.com/Bp81FtWFEE
— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) June 13, 2023
