The King due for royal visit

MANILA, Philippines - LeBron James, the NBA’s reigning back-to-back MVP and regarded as the best player on the planet today, is coming to Manila on July 23.

Nike Philippines yesterday made the announcement as part of its “Leave a Message” campaign designed to inspire young Filipino athletes to strive for greatness and perhaps be like the Miami Heat superstar.

Filipino fans will have the rare chance to see LeBron live on July 23. Tickets will be distributed at Nike Park at Bonifacio Global City at 12 noon on July 17. Tickets are free of charge and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Only two tickets will be given per person. 

Just right after James and the Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs for their second straight NBA championship last month, Nike joined the celebration with the “Leave a Message” campaign on social and digital message channels.

It featured basketball stars, luminaries and influential figures for James like Spike Lee, Warren Buffet, Dr. Dre, Coach K, Phil Knight, Drake, Bill Russell and kids from The LeBron James Family Foundation leaving congratulatory messages for the cage icon on his answering machine.

In line with this, Filipino fans will also have a special chance to leave a personal message for James through social media like Twitter and Facebook, radio and retail activation.

By visiting the Nike Basketball Facebook and Twitter pages, fans can “leave a message” for the two-time champion and four-time MVP everyone calls “The King.”

Nike Phl instructs the caption of the photo should tag Nike Basketball Phl  (https://www.facebook.com/nikebasketball.phils) on Facebook or tag @NikePH on Twitter, both including the hashtag #WITNESSHISTORY. 

Since breaking into the NBA as a high school phenom exactly a decade ago, James has achieved a lot, winning two titles for Miami, including the back-to-back MVP honors. He clinched the MVP regular season trophy four times, made the All-Star nine times while winning two All-Star MVP and a one-time scoring champion and 2004 Rookie of the Year. He also won an Olympic gold in London.

The 28-year-old James is being considered as one of the NBA’s greatest players to play the game and has been consistently compared with the great Michael Jordan.

Boom Gonzalez, who will be hosting the historic Nike-sponsored event, said in Twitter James has agreed even before the NBA finals concluded.

“For those asking, LBJ said yes to the trip even before the NBA finals began. Win or lose, he was coming,” said Gonzalez.

James is actually one of a host of NBA superstars set to visit the country this year as Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls along with Tony Parker of the Spurs and Eric Gordon of the New Orleans Pelicans are also scheduled to fly to Manila on Sept. 2, this time as part of the adidas tour.

The NBA is also holding a pre-season game between the Indiana Pacers and the Houston Rockets on Oct. 10 at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.

Among the stars coming to Manila in that historic game are Indiana’s Paul George, David West and Roy Hibbert and Houston’s James Harden, Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik and its recent free agent acquisition Dwight Howard.

A couple of years back, a constellation of NBA stars had also visited the country for a pair of games and the players that came were Rose, Harden, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Tyreke Evans, Derrick Williams, Derek Fisher and JaVale McGee.