I just saw this Lil Wayne/LeBron James/donut ad on Fuse, and it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post this explanation of the chalk flying throughout the commercial, courtesy of our in-house LeBron expert, who goes by um, LeBron: “He’s been doing that for years—the chalk is just so he gets a better grip on the ball, but he chalks up his hands and then claps a cloud into the air and the crowd goes berserk. It’s like a lot of players’ pregame rituals—Vince Carter does a pullup on the net, Charles Oakley used to throw Spike Lee a bounce pass (Elton Brand threw me one once when he was on the Bulls and I was courtside!).” That’s what I get for only watching Law & Order reruns on TNT! By the way, the song is not a track that’s going to be on the forthcoming reissue of Tha Carter III—at least, not yet—but “Candyman” by Cornershop. [YouTube via Songs For Soap]
In Case You Were Wondering About The Significance Of The Chalk In The Lil Wayne/LeBron James Nike Ad
December 11th, 2008 // 14 Comments
idolator
Candyman was pretty much my favorite song ever in like 1999. For this reason, and others, I love this commercial.
Wow…I thought most people would know that about LeBron, assuming you’ve seen him play once or twice.
The commercial was done by Mark Romanek, who I’m people on here have heard of. Good stuff.
*I’m sure people…*
@MayhemintheHood: nope. see my note about my tnt habits!
I was really shocked to hear this track included in the commercial. I haven’t listened to WHEN I WAS BORN FOR THE SEVENTH TIME since about ’02. Too bad they edited out the reference in the rap to Tajinder Singh.
Also, LeBron stole this bit from Kevin Garnett.
Speaking of Cornershop in commercials, by the way, you had to love Tajinder going in a rerecording the chorus of “Good Shit” so it could be used in a Target ad.
i had to have a coworker explain this commercial to me as well. the coworker then said, “i thought you were a basketball fan.”
“no,” i replied, “i’m a steve nash fan.”
i saw cornershop on the tour for …7th Time. singh spent a lot of time nitpicking the perfectly fine sound.
@Maura Johnston: i think the two of us need to spend a lost holiday together watching law & order marathons.
@silkyjumbo: Steve Nash has fans that don’t watch basketball? Are you Canadian? Just trying to connect the dots here.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: Yeah, it’s true, KG does it too. But LeBron made it an art form…
This commerical has been on constant rotation on ESPN for the past few weeks, and damn is it catchy. My WTF-reactions:
1) What does Weezy have to do with basketball sneakers?
2) it’s kinda gross seeing the Dunkin’ Donuts guy sprinking baby powder on my donuts.
@encyclopediablack: i mean, i sit through games and i try to keep up with everything. steve nash, though…i, uh, i think he’s cute.
@blackmailismylife: And before KG did it, MJ was doing it. Kobe does it too, and probably got it from Jordan.
I always thought this was LeBron paying homage to Kevin Garnett, who does the same thing at the scorer’s table before every game.
@kabosh: Yup, and LeBron idolizes Jordan — as do I — wears his number and everything. Luckily, he didn’t inherit his gambling addiction.