LeBron James is a well-known Ohio State backer. He’s such a vocal OSU supporter, in fact, that Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center is giving away free LeBron Nike Soldier 10’s to all babies born there Friday and Saturday.
When the announcement of this amazing baby-kicks giveaway surfaced, Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue said the whole squad would attend Saturday’s huge rivalry game with Michigan before flying to Philadelphia for their Sunday afternoon game.
Considering how the Cavs rallied around the Cleveland Indians during their run to the World Series, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that they’re backing their (kind of) hometown college Saturday. (Where’s the love for Cleveland State?!)
It seems the Cavs are having a great time, as they’ve been treated to the ultimate Columbus VIP experience—a sideline hangout with the legend himself, Brutus the Buckeye.
After they made their way up to a box, Uninterrupted posted a hilarious video of the Cavs hanging out and wondering whether they have college football eligibility.
A number of the Cavs, including J.R. Smith, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Chris Andersen, posed for a photo with Brutus. When Ohio State scored a touchdown to go up 7-3 in the second quarter, ABC panned to the Cavs on the sideline and found the class of the Eastern Conference dancing in celebration.
Though LeBron didn’t make the photo (since when does LeBron miss a Cavs team photo?), he was of course in attendance—and leading the dancing charge.
He also tweeted some support of Ohio State (and, of course, Nike) earlier in the day.
How much do you think Nike spent on giving away those sneakers to newborns? Now, how much do you think they've made in free advertising behind the LeBron-centered promotion efforts this weekend? People probably don't even realize they're being sold something. Marketing greatness from Nike.
This is shaping up to be a tremendous college football game between two excellent 10-1 Big Ten teams. You can catch the rest of it on ABC.
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