James Harden is one of the leaders for Adidas when it comes to their brand and who wears it. Kanye West probably holds the crown as the most popular, but Harden comes in a likely second place. Adidas decided to put a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday explaining why it is okay to think Harden is the MVP. Apparently, it is a popularity contest versus an actual vote by media members and other people in NBA circles. I did not know they changed the rules of the MVP. Here’s the ad in full with some more explanation around it then watch Brook Lopez give his opinion on the whole thing.

So @adidas placed a full page ad in my paper today. On James Harden. And here’s Brook Lopez reading it at my request #bucks pic.twitter.com/CKC7tHhIke

— Lori Nickel (@LoriNickel) March 26, 2019

Here’s why this is a dumb thing to do in Milwaukee. First, Bucks fans are hyper sensitive to their guy. Everyone loves Giannis and wants him to be the MVP. Even if the Greek Freak says it doesn’t matter, the fans want it. Second, I get the idea of marketing is to have people talk about it and that’s a good campaign in some people’s eyes yet it doesn’t make an impact at all. We look at it and go ‘Oh, why would they waste that money?’ If anything, why not roll out new ads called ‘Free to Harden’ or something like that during the TNT broadcast? There are other things that would have made an impact. This did not.

Charlie.