LeBron hits town, turns heat on

MANILA, Philippines - LeBron James, regarded as the greatest player today, arrived yesterday in a private jet for a one-day promotional tour today aimed at inspiring his fans and promote his product line.

“Just landed,” a staff of Ogilvy, Nike’s public relations firm in the country, told The STAR just seconds after the Miami Heat superstar’s plane landed at 5:40 p.m. and exited in a private tarmac at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

James’ itinerary for today is a press conference at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City at lunchtime, an appearance at the Nike Park at the Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City at 2 p.m. and the keenly awaited meet-and-greet with the fans at the MOA Arena at 4 p.m.

He will leave Wednesday morning.

Nike, which is sponsoring James’ first visit to the country, gave away a total of 4,000 tickets for the MOA event last week with thousands of fans lining up for two days in the heat and rain for the coveted tickets. Some tickets later were sold online for as much as P5,000.

James’ visit actually kicks off a series of appearances by a slew of NBA stars here with the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant also set to come courtesy of adidas and Lenovo Mobile, respectively.

James Harden of the Houston Rockets is also set to grace the NBA 3-on-3 set this weekend, also at the MOA Arena.

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 Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik, Harden and its recent free agent acquisition Dwight Howard.

A couple of years back, a horde of NBA stars played exhibition games against Gilas Pilipinas, including Rose, Harden, Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Tyreke Evans, Derrick Williams, Derek Fisher and JaVale McGee.