On the biggest night of Kevin Durant’s career Nike not only underwhelmed but also stirred up some forgotten resentment.

Golden State Warriors were victorious in their fight against the Cleveland Cavaliers and took home the 2017 NBA championship while Kevin Durant from the team earned his first-ever Finals MVP as well.

Nike are known for cashing in on basketball’s big moments with often equally-big sneaker releases and it was expected they’d make another huge release following the game yesterday. For example, after the 2016 NBA Finals, Nike released the Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier 10 iD to celebrate LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2016 NBA championship win and later followed it up with the ‘Four Wins’ Collection which was four two-pair packages of the LeBron Soldier 10 and Kyrie 2.

For Golden State’s win and Kevin Durant’s MVP honour in the 2017 NBA Finals, Nike chose to release a cork option of the Nike Air Force 1 instead of his own new Nike KD 10. We would have expected some limited edition KD 10 release to honour and celebrate the win but instead got the Air Force 1 which has been around for years. Hopefully we’ll see another release soon like the ‘Four Wins’ collection.

In addition to this, Nike also released their ‘Debate This’ ad campaign aimed to shut down the Durant haters and remind them of why he earned his title as MVP, we think. Although this message may have been received, the ad also brought up a lot of the controversy surrounding Durant’s doubtful beginnings and his move from Oklahoma City to Golden State.

Why not let him win in style rather than remind everyone why they hated him?

Give credit where credit is due, we say and we think that’s what Nike were trying to say. What do you think?