With the ’08 Beijing Olympics fast approaching, Nike issued a global press release regarding the Hyperdunk, an incredibly lightweight shoe that will be worn by Nike “sponsored” teams later this summer. To further augment the hype surrounding the Hypers, marketing stalwart Kobe Bryant broke them out last week, and even filmed a commercial based around the dynamic offering.
In an online interview, Bryant admitted his jump over the Aston Martin was staged, and relied on camera trickery to make the jump look authentic. In our third issue, we featured the venerable hoops legend Demetrius “Hook” Mitchell on the cover (available at our online store). While considered by some to be among the best players never to reach the NBA, one thing is for certain: the man can jump over cars on his way to a thunderous dunk. So I ask you, if Kobe’s jump had been authentic, what athletic feat is more amazing to you? (Hook is 5’9″ while Kobe is 6’8″.)
April 19th, 2008 at 9:13 am
23edge says:
In these times of million dollar salaries and endorsements one can’t help but be a cynic. Just knowing that Kobe is worth so much to Nike, and would never let him pull a stunt like this brings a dark cloud over it. There’s no doubt in my mind that Kobe could do this jump, but just the fact that it was done with the help of computers and such brings his status down in my books. Not so much that he didn’t do it himself, but that he let it happen.
“Go big or go home”
April 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Teddy "Doowop" says:
If he never admitted that it was done with computers, and just avoided the question altogether, this could have been one of the most brilliant marketing strategies. It creates discussion, people would be debating back and forth about whether it was real or not. I still think its pretty ingenius. The shoe looks amazing too, cant wait till it drops.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Nick Barnes says:
If Kobe’s jump had been real, I’d say his would be more impressive than Hook’s just ’cause the car was coming at him. Forget hops, you gotta have your courage up to jump over a moving car.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:48 am
InsideHoops.com says:
When I was around 18 I used to jump over entire arenas. - Jeff
August 24th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
NaomiKM19 says:
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