Anthony Edwards went to Manila to show off his newest Adidas sneakers. But somewhere between the workouts, fan interactions and everything else on the Believe That. Tour, the shoes stopped being the loudest part of his trip. Give Ant a microphone, and things can change pretty quickly.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves star was in the Philippines for Adidas’ Believe That. Tour, where he unveiled the AE 3 during an on-court workout on August 14. Yet one unscripted fan interaction quickly took the attention away from his third signature sneaker. Edwards grabbed a live microphone in an arena covered with Adidas branding and started rapping.
And there was no hiding his target. “We don’t f*** with Nike. You can send them [slur] home,” Edwards rapped. It was not part of a scripted Adidas segment, but the setting made the shot hard to miss: one of the brand’s biggest basketball stars had just called out its biggest rival during an Adidas tour.
And Edwards carries enough weight with Adidas for those words to matter. He first signed with the company before his rookie season in 2020 and landed a multi-year extension in July 2024. His AE 1 became such a hit that Adidas reportedly pushed the planned December 2024 release of the AE 2 into 2025 because demand for the original shoe remained so strong. Now, Manila has become the launchpad for the AE 3.
But Edwards’ Nike line did not come out of nowhere. Months before he grabbed that microphone in Manila, Adidas had already put him at the center of a much more public sneaker war—and Victor Wembanyama was right in the middle of it.
In a February 2026 Adidas ad, Edwards entered a virtual world filled with NBA stars and found Wembanyama portrayed as a lanky green alien. Ant drilled a jumper over him, yelled “weight room,” while the avatar was tagged “no swag,” and later declared, “It don’t matter who on the floor. I’m the top dog, man.”
Three months later, Wembanyama got the last laugh on the court. San Antonio eliminated Minnesota 4-2 in the Western Conference semifinals, closing the series with a 139-109 Game 6 win as Edwards finished with 24 points on 9-of-26 shooting. Hours later, Nike Basketball quote-posted the NBA’s series-clinching graphic with a red, Mars-like image carrying Wembanyama’s alien logo and two words: “Believe This.”
The callback was hard to miss. Adidas had built Edwards’ campaign around “Believe That.” Its February commercial had turned Nike athlete Wembanyama into an alien for Edwards to mock. After Wembanyama eliminated him, Nike took the same alien theme and Adidas’ own slogan and flipped both back on Edwards.
That response stood out beyond the joke itself. Sneaker industry analysis noted that Nike has traditionally had little reason to publicly acknowledge its rivals. But with Edwards and Adidas, even the Swoosh joined the back-and-forth. As one analysis put it, “Nike’s sudden willingness to engage in direct public sparring signals a broader recognition within sports marketing.”
And the brand-on-brand trolling predates this year’s playoffs. In October 2024, Adidas released its viral lie-detector campaign with Edwards. Nike soon borrowed the same language while celebrating one of its own marquee stars: “Still the King. No lies detected.” Even Curry Brand later used a lie-detector setup with Stephen Curry, prompting Complex Sneakers to ask, “Did Curry Brand just bite adidas and Anthony Edwards?”
Edwards has even tried pulling Nike stars toward his side. After he publicly said he wanted Kevin Durant to wear the AE 1, Durant, who has a lifetime Nike deal, was asked whether he would actually do it. His answer needed only two words: “F*** no.”
That history makes Manila feel less like a random freestyle and more like the latest round of a rivalry that keeps finding new places to surface. Adidas mocked Wembanyama, Nike turned Edwards’ own campaign against him, Durant refused the AE 1—and now Ant has grabbed the microphone himself. Neither Nike nor Adidas has publicly responded to the Manila lyric yet. For now, Edwards’ message is the one left ringing: “We don’t f*** with Nike.”