While watching game two of the Nuggets-Utah series the commercial above came on, and I had an immediate WTF moment. I rewound the commercial two or three times just to see if I’d heard it right, and found that my ears weren’t deceiving me. I couldn’t figure out why the people of Utah would support the future champion Carmelo Anthony. It made no sense at all, especially since he was playing against Utah’s beloved Jazz in round one. We debated in an e-mail chain what the motive behind this ad was. We found no ties to Melo in Utah. He went to Syracuse, and was born a New Yorker, so not connection there. The only thing we really came up with was that they shared a state border. Dyslecix claimed it was a Nike covert commercial operation, and low and behold, he was right!

Today it was let on that Melo teamed up with Nike’s Jordan brand to create this confusing, but creative commercial. When first approached about the ad Melo asked “You like it, think it’s funny?” I fully fell for it, I thought it was a serious PSA from the state of Utah, and the fans of Melo! Turns out it was geared towards riling up the Utah fans. I’m not sure why Denver wants Energy Solutions Arena any louder than it already is, those Mormons are pretty wild. Melo had this to say about the ad, “To make it seem like all the fans in Utah are rooting for me. It’s just stirring some stuff up. If we had played Phoenix, it would be the same thing.”

Good stuff Melo, I’m sure the Mormons hate you and your tatoos a little more now. He was also asked how he thinks the fans will react to him in Game 3, Melo said: “Of course, they’ll boo me. . . . It’s the playoffs.” Good to see we’re on the same page with this one Melo… All in all I liked the ad, and it made me think way more than I should’ve had to for any ad. I guess Nike got their wish, because even I felt it was postworthy material…