Whatever beef Brown has with the shoe giant, snatching a piece of its business won’t be easy: It owns about 80% of the roughly $5.5 billion global basketball shoe market. It makes uniforms for every team in the league, and during the 2022-23 season, the most recent one for which information is available, 65% of players wore Nike sneakers.

One of the surprising storylines in this early NBA season is a budding feud between Boston Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The pair clashed during the Celtics' win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday, which culminated in Brown calling Antetokounmpo a "child" during his postgame press conference.

Giannis Antetokounmpo's 59-point game on Wednesday led to Nike taking a not-so-subtle shot at the Celtics' Jaylen Brown.