The image of giant equipment «Nike» was affected yesterday after an injury suffered by a rising star in American basketball, as a result of the rupture of his athletic shoes during a match attended by former President Barack Obama.
Duke University's Xion Williamson, the candidate for the NPA, was hit 40 seconds after the start of the North Carolina clash.
And his shoes exploded clearly during the focus on his foot, which caused him to slip and hit his knee, according to scenes shown by the network «ESPN», which transferred the game.
The player went limping without returning to the stadium again, in a shock that outstripped the strong competition between the two archdioceses.
"I hope the young man is fine," said LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers and Nike. His power has exploded completely. "
Obama, who attended the match with other celebrities, said: "Xion Williamson looks like a great young man and an exceptional basketball player at the same time. I hope he will recover quickly. "
At a time when social networking was sweeping the landscape, eyes were turning toward Nike, which had contracted exclusively with Duke for 12 years. "If it is an isolated incident, we are trying to understand what happened," the company explained in a letter to AFP.
Shares in Nike fell on Wall Street by 1.36 percent in pre-session electronic exchanges.
Nike is battling Adidas and Under Armor to attract the attention of the world's leading sports stars.
Williamson is one of the most prominent faces in American sports, and at the age of 18, the number of followers on the site of 2,4 million people.