When LeBron James made his infamous decision two summers ago and took his talents to the Miami Heat to share space with fellow stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, it appeared that the south Florida team was ready to build itself a massive trophy case and start filling it pronto. 

The team couldn’t quite get it done last year versus the Dallas Mavericks but has now achieved its big goal of winning an NBA championship with the Big Three. The re-tweeting James may be one of the NBA’s best player, if not the best right now, but he’s been told numerous times that he won’t be remembered so much down the line if he can’t come up with some championships.

This was his third trip to the Finals, with one coming while he still ruled the world of the Cleveland Cavaliers. And after all of that, LeBron’s pals over at Nike were ready as soon as the last buzzer sounded in the team’s Game 5 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder that finished off the series with a tribute video to the King.Continue reading...

Miami Heat and LeBron James win NBA title.

Abbott challenges ease of biotech drug copies.

Air France to cut 5,000 jobs.

Benetton takes Cannes award with "Unhate" campaign.

Best Buy tells investors its turnaround plan involves boosting training and services.

CBS plans to launch sports radio network.

Dow Jones plans to take Smart Money magazine to web only.Continue reading...

Apple stock price looms large as iPad 3 (aka iPad HD) debut nears, and the company is sued by a firm that has a patent deal with Microsoft.

Boston Beer expands beyond Sam Adams.

BT and TalkTalk lose case against UK's anti-piracy legislation.

Chevy Volt woes may take solace from Toyota Prius.

Dunkin' Donuts brings pork doughnuts and LeBron James to China.

GM and Peugeot cement alliance.

Geneva International Auto Show opens amid slump in European car sales as Volkswagen shows off a Bentley concept SUV.

Jack Daniels opens "drinking school" with Zac Brown Band.Continue reading...

It's been a big year for Nike, between the release of the FuelBand and Linsanity (yes, Nike is giving Jeremy Lin his own shoe already, the Nike Hyperfuse 2011 Linsanity PE). The brand continues to impress with a slew of announcements this week, unveiling innovations for basketball and summer sports.Continue reading...

The NBA season may only be 66 games this season, but Nike is not missing an opportunity to sell more shoes. At the start of February, three of its big-name endorsers — Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat’s LeBron James, and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder — lent their names to Black History Month-themed sneakers on store shelves.

Now the talented trio will all be taking the court for the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando on Feb. 26 and Nike isn't missing a beat. The sports shoe giant is releasing space-themed shoes for each player to sell in honor of the city’s relationship with space travel, according to Fox News. (It’s only an hour west of Kennedy Space Center.) As Fox News reports, the Nike shoes will feature graphics that "pay homage to the supernova — arguably the most powerful force in the universe." The outsoles of the shoes will glow in the dark and show will have individual “mission patches,” just the way astronaut uniforms do.Continue reading...

Kobe Bryant's mock personal motivation commercial for his latest shoe — the Kobe VII System — for Nike: "Where do you go from the top? You go over the top. The #KobeSystem: Success for the Successful is Kobe's winning, results-oriented philosophy on how to adapt to succeed. You're Welcome."

Celebrity cameos include comedian/actor Aziz Ansari, Hope Solo, LeBron James, Jerry Rice, Landon Donovan, Tony Robbins, Serena Williams, Kanye West,  and Richard Branson.

Find out more (on a more serious note) about the Kobe VII System shoe (Correction: "It isn't a shoe, but a system that adapts with you and allows you to elevate your game," says Nike) below.Continue reading...

If there is one thing NBA stars LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Derrick Rose need, it's more exposure, don’t you think? Forget their break-ups and make-ups... basketball's major personal brands are making sure their names are out there in bold print across the nation with three totally different deals.

You’d think the Chicago Bulls point guard, Rose, who is making almost $95 million over five seasons, had enough cash in the bank to survive for some time, but the word from Business Insider is that he’s bolstering his accounts by signing a “lifetime endorsement” deal with Adidas that will pay him $250 million. Not bad for a 23-year-old in a rough economy who may or may not have had someone else take his SATs for him. It’s actually a 10-year deal, according to ESPN, that would have Rose serve as the “face” of Adidas. As ESPN hears it, Rose’s shoes outsell LeBron’s in China.

Meanwhile, James is shoring up his name and fame by opening his own retail store in Miami over the holidays, while Bryant is having fun spoofing his image for Nike.Continue reading...

The Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks will reprise their NBA Finals matchup from last season on Christmas Day, the first day of this shortened NBA season. The Heat will likely get to watch the Mavs celebrate their Finals victory again before they tipoff their new season.

LeBron James, who says that it took him two or three weeks to start coming out of his depression after the Finals, isn’t going to enjoy the show too much.  Something he will likely enjoy is the launch of a special design for his ninth signature shoe with Nike, the LeBron 9, which is slated for release on Dec. 31st.

The Huffington Post reports that Nike is putting a little bit of Miami flavoring in the $170 shoe by commissioning locally-flavored art from one of the city’s coolest artists, Alvaro Ilizarbe, who goes by the name Freegums, for one version of the shoe.Continue reading...