Jordan brand is scared of Steph Curry and the Warriors

Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are challenging Michael Jordan and his billion dollar brand. The huge company is now in an unexpected fight.

Michael Jordan might be a better businessman than he was a basketball player. His Jumpman logo is a cultural landmark. His shoe releases are mainstream events and acquiring the rarest of kicks has become a competitive sport.

The brand has become the standard in the basketball and sneaker worlds. It reigns supreme over everyone else. While guys like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant have down a wonderful job creating their own brand with Nike, Jordan stands alone. The brand is iconic and the standard.

Yet, despite this, it’s become increasingly clear that the marketing team in charge of re-telling the story of the near-consensus greatest player of all-time with six championships and legendary feats is concerned with someone much smaller. The Jordan brand is scared. They see Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the rear-view mirror approaching fast.

Curry, of course, is with Under Armour. He’s the face of that entire brand. The diminutive point guard has taken the often-overlooked company and made them a serious player in the basketball world. He’s the Nike empire’s biggest threat.

HIs shoes have done extremely well, outselling nearly every other NBA athlete. Again, the Curry-James rivalry takes center stage. But instead of competing at Oracle Arena, they’re duking it out at Foot Locker.

Once a Nike athlete, Curry left after feeling slighted. He then just happened to explode and become the game’s most marketable player with a serious appeal to the casual fan. He’s rattled off two MVPs in a row, a championship, and a 73-win season with his “UA” logo on full display as he sets his feet behind the three-point line.

Jordan brand isn’t going anywhere. Neither is Nike. But for the first time in a very long time, the basketball world doesn’t exclusively belong to them. This little guy out of a small school who wears shoes from that brand no one in hoops cared about has the world melting in the palm of his hands.

While they might not be going anywhere, they’re, understandably, concerned. And unhappy. Russell Westbrook, star of the Oklahoma City Thunder, is perhaps Curry’s biggest threat to the “best point guard in the NBA” title. His freakish, unparalleled athleticism is jaw-dropping. He can do some spectacular things on the basketball court.

Westbrook is a very intense player. Oftentimes, that intensity turns into stubbornness and he ends up hurting his team with a forced pass or ill-advised shot. That intensity is attractive to many. It’s partly why Bryant has become the icon he is. Jordan brand understands this and uses it to their advantage.

Jordan released a commercial called “Make Space” in anticipation of the AJXXX’s. It features Westbrook walking down the pregame tunnel almost like a boxer instead of a basketball player. A young fan is hyping him up with an introduction that talks about how explosive he is. Early on, he asks “what y’all expect? Another choir boy running point?”

The intent and the meaning here is clear. What Westbrook is to raw power, Curry is to finesse. Beyond the court, Curry is known as a very quiet, clean-cut individual. You could definitely call him a “choir boy.” Jordan was throwing a subliminal jab at the best point guard in the NBA. Curry’s second consecutive MVP award and eventual elimination of Westbrook in the Western Conference Finals shows that it was a swing and miss.

But it didn’t end there. Jordan brand is back at it again with Westbrook’s marketing campaign. Now he has a new rival, his former best basketball buddy Kevin Durant. Since the 2014 MVP announced his decision to leave the Thunder and join the Warriors on July 4, the two have been juxtaposed. Durant has been labeled a coward while Westbrook is a hero for signing an extension.

It was another opportunity for the marketing team to take a shot at another player. Going after Curry clearly makes sense. He’s a direct rival, both on and off the court. His Under Armour shoes are in competition with Westbrook and the other Jordan athletes.

But going after Durant seems odd, especially since he’s a Nike athlete. I’m sure the Nike suits aren’t exactly pleased with his decision to leave to join Under Armour’s knight in shining armor, but he’s still one of their most profitable athletes. He’s Kevin Durant.

Jordan has started to promote the AJXXXI’s. Westbrook is trying to capitalize on his newfound freedom. He now has his team and he’s the good guy in the whole situation. So Jordan put out a new ad on Instagram. The caption read “some run, some make runways” as Westbrook elevates from the free-throw line painted on a runway.

Again, this is a shot at a Golden State Warrior. Durant “ran away” to the Bay Area after nine years in OKC. He lost to the Warriors in the postseason and chose Under Armour’s Curry over Jordan’s Westbrook. They’ve resorted to throwing shots at other athletes and what’s going on outside of that athlete’s world instead of actually talking about how great their own player is.

The Warriors just beat Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ single-season record. While they couldn’t finish the job in the Finals, they definitely made their presence felt. This is what Curry and the Warriors are doing to the Jordan brand.

A team with an Under Armour star, Anta star (Klay Thompson), and a Nike athlete who defected and threw his biggest sponsor a curveball is trying to establish a dynasty. They’re trying to chase Jordan the player. In doing so, they’re hurting Jordan the businessman.

Curry will never be able to take down the whole Jordan monolith by himself, but he’s definitely begun to chip away. And they’re scared and uncomfortable.