"Clearly, LeBron is much more important in terms of the direction of Nike," Carter said. "In terms of the Nike brand name and the persona of that brand, they're really trying to reach that young audience. LeBron actually speaks to that particular Nike purchaser, more than a guy like Kobe. If you think about Kobe, forget the fact he's got to share air time with Shaq and the whole L.A. scene. He's multilingual, really good-looking guy, really very Hollywood in a lot of ways. Nine times out of 10, that's extremely favorable. This is the one time it's not going to play to his advantage. He's arrived too much to be someone that Nike can really mold into its next great personality. I think it's really about Nike's ability to manufacture personalities."