Converse took a brutal swipe at Minnesota Timberwolves forward Anthony Edwards in a commercial promoting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s signature shoe after the Oklahoma City Thunder reached the NBA Finals on Wednesday.
The Thunder beat Minnesota 124-94 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Ok. on Wednesday to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 years. After the win, Converse shared an ad promoting Gilgeous-Alexander’s upcoming Shai 001 shoe.
Most of the focus, however, was on Edwards. The ad featured an ant wandering around aimlessly, and even took a shot at Edwards’ “Believe That” slogan that is part of his own Adidas campaign.
“Nothing left 2 say? Unbelievable,” the ad read.
Not hard 2 believe. @shaiglalex is headed to the Finals. pic.twitter.com/v8mVYxeaPM
— Converse (@Converse) May 29, 2025
Converse is not necessarily one of the leading shoe brands among NBA players, so they might have sensed the opportunity to garner some attention with an ad like this. If so, they clearly succeeded, as the ad went viral with over 1.2 million views as of Thursday afternoon.
Wednesday could not have gone much worse for Edwards. His team was never in the game, he was held below 20 points for the third time in the five-game series, and he comfortably lost the head-to-head battle with Gilgeous-Alexander. The Converse ad is just salt in the wound.
