W+K, Nike Chronicle Kevin Durant’s Friendship with His Neighbor

By Bob Marshall 

Well, at least one major agency’s awake during the holidays. Oklahoma City Thunder small forward/shooting guard Kevin Durant is a blossoming NBA superstar, and as the very young face of a fairly new team located in the middle of nowhere, Durant is looking more and more like the anti-Lebron James. Oddly enough, W+K and Nike seem to be playing up Durant’s “man of the people” persona in contrast to the brand’s recent campaigns featuring James.

Using Durant’s Oklahoma City neighbor and Thunder superfan Mathias Murphy to give a candid, low-budget look into the opinions and personality of the NBA talent, Nike and W+K have turned Murphy’s Twitter and YouTube profiles into an interactive fan forum. As seen above, Durant openly gives his neighbor an honest opinion on the Dallas Mavericks’ star Dirk Nowitzki in preparation for last night’s game (which the Thunder lost despite Nowitzki leaving in the second quarter with a knee injury).

Advertisement

Since the campaign launched in late October, Murphy’s YouTube has seen over 4.4 million views, he has over 10,000 followers on Twitter and the newest NBA Jam videogame features Durant and Murphy as an unlockable team, proving that having an NBA player as your next door neighbor can be an ideal living situation if he’s not a jerk.

Advertisement