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As LeBron James was losing a battle against debilitating muscle cramps, because he is, after all, a human and not a cyborg, energy-drink-maker Gatorade was getting all trolly with the King during the game.
Or, at least whoever runs the Gatorade Twitter account was.
Because they were laying it on pretty thick, even as LeBron was being carried off to the bench.
On Friday, Gatorade the company issued an apology for the tweets. Though not directly to LeBron, nor via its Twitter account.
At news of the AT&T Center’s air-conditioner unit malfunctioning, Gatorade decided to do that thing that companies do and market the crap out of the situation:
But as LeBron’s cramps began forcing him out of the game, the Gatorade Twitter decided to take it up a notch and troll not only James but also its rival Powerade, which is the energy drink LeBron endorses.
Body Armor got in on the action too, trolling Gatorade by pointing out that LeBron was actually drinking Gatorade to help his cramps (which, obviously, didn’t work):
Gatorade, realizing that it is partners with the NBA (as well as LeBron’s teammate, Dwyane Wade), has since deleted the tweets about LeBron and issued a statement apologizing for them.
”Our apologies for our response to fans’ tweets during (Thursday) night’s Heat vs. Spurs game,” Gatorade said in a news release. ”We got caught up in the heat of the battle. As a longtime partner of the Miami Heat, we support the entire team.”
LeBron was asked Friday about the whole incident:
Meanwhile, as we wrote about earlier, the story of Game 1 of these Finals has been the temperature and LeBron’s cramping.
And, predictably, Heat haters the world over have been ripping the four-time MVP, multiple gold-medal-winning, dual Finals MVP and back-to-back NBA champion/greatest basketball player on the planet and his not being able to withstand muscle cramps like any normal human person.
Except Michael Jordan, of course.
He NEVER begged out of a game in the Finals over cramps. Except that one time when he did.
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