{"id":937182,"date":"2026-10-22T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937182\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:14:09","slug":"ja-morants-arrival-in-portland-offers-nike-boost-as-nba-season-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937182\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant\u2019s arrival in Portland offers Nike boost as NBA season begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The arrival of Trail Blazers G Ja Morant to Portland could boost Nike\u2019s \u201ccomeback efforts<\/a> as it works to rebuild its focus on sports,\u201d according to Kish & Freeman of the Portland OREGONIAN. Basketball shoes are \u201cout of fashion,\u201d but Morant\u2019s signature shoes \u201cremain a bright spot for Nike,\u201d which is entering the third year of a corporate turnaround under CEO Elliott Hill. Morant laced up his Nikes for his first regular-season game as a Trail Blazer on Wednesday, making him the first Nike signature athlete to play for the team since Basketball HOFer Scottie Pippen did so more than two decades ago. The Blazers practice and play about 12 miles from Nike\u2019s corporate campus. Nike EVP\/Global Sports Marketing Ann Miller said that the \u201cproximity will make it easier to visit with Morant during the season, which will help with product development.\u201d She added, \u201cWe\u2019ll keep finding ways to partner with Ja and the Blazers to connect with the community all season long.\u201d Morant said that some \u201cfun product launches are on the way for Portland fans\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 10\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

GOING ALL IN: In Portland, Matthew Kish noted Portland\u2019s city-owned White Stag sign now features Morant \u201cdunking over the deer.\u201d It\u2019s unknown how much Nike paid to alter the sign. A Nike spokesperson said that Morant\u2019s likeness will be on the sign until Nov. 7. That means it will \u201ccome down before the annual holiday redecorating\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 10\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The arrival of Trail Blazers G Ja Morant to Portland could boost Nike\u2019s \u201ccomeback efforts as it works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,726,160092,590,85,7642],"class_list":["post-937182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-merchandise-and-collectibles","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}