National Basketball Association

Nike jumps gun on LeBron kicks?

Published Jun. 18, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

Sam Gardner

LeBron James has won one NBA championship in his career, and it’s fair to assume that he’d really like to win another.

But LeBron hasn’t yet secured a second Larry O’Brien Trophy, and if his Miami Heat don’t win their next two NBA Finals games against the San Antonio Spurs, starting Tuesday night at home, they’ll have to wait until next year for James to win that second title — which, again, he hasn’t yet won.

I repeat that because images of a pair of new Nike LeBron X Low floral pattern sneakers have surfaced, and it seems, if the pictures are legit, that Nike hasn't yet been informed that the shoe's namesake only has one title.

Observe, in these photos from sneaker blog Kix and the City:

The sock liner for one shoe reads, “2-time champion” and the liner for the other reads, “11-12, 12-13,” which is half-right. For Nike’s sake, let’s hope this is either just a fake, a custom one-off — or that the Heat find a way to rally against the Spurs.

Otherwise, the shoe giant is going to have an expensive and embarrassing problem on its hands.