The Los Angeles Clippers took care of business with a 117-84 win in Intuit Dome’s first-ever playoff game. Kawhi Leonard posted a double-double, notching 21 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists in the Clippers 34-point rout over the Denver Nuggets. During Kawhi’s postgame press conference, he seemed to take a subtle jab at an iconic sports drink.
Kawhi Leonard Takes a Shot at Gatorade, an NBA Sponsor
Gatorade has made a name for itself in the sports industry as the drink that “fuels the athlete”. However, Leonard seems to think differently. Leonard stepped to the podium for his routine postgame press conference.
Normally, there will be Gatorade bottles strategically placed for sponsorship purposes. On his way up to the podium, Leonard removed the Gatorade bottles and said, “Kids don’t need to be drinking these.”
Kawhi Leonard started his postgame media by taking the Gatorades off the podium.
“Kids don’t need to be drinking these.” pic.twitter.com/GkFhvJKZcl
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_)
History of Gatorade
PepsiCo acquired Gatorade in 2001 when it merged with the Quaker Oats Company. This acquisition added the famous sports drink to PepsiCo’s portfolio of brands.
As of April 2025, PepsiCo has a market cap of $182.64 billion, according to NASDAQ. This makes PepsiCo the world’s 75th most valuable company by market cap, according to their data. Market capitalization is the total market value of a publicly traded company’s outstanding shares and is used to quantify a company’s worth.
Surely, Gatorade is doing well financially, and Kawhi’s comments won’t hurt their bottom line, but is there a bigger trend of athletes not liking Gatorade?
Athletes’ Publicly Shunning Gatorade
NBA star Klay Thompson has publicly shown his disapproval for Gatorade as well. During a press conference in 2017, Thompson, then with the Golden State Warriors, flipped over a bottle of Gatorade, causing it to fall off the podium.
This also isn’t Leonard’s first time disassociating himself with the sports drink. During the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago, Leonard again removed a bottle of Gatorade, mumbling under his breath, “not sponsored by Gatorade”.
The NBA’s biggest star, LeBron James, has also publicly shunned Gatorade. James used to be a partner with Gatorade but ended up switching to Powerade, one of Gatorade’s biggest competitors. Since Gatorade is the official drink for the NBA, James had to drink Gatorade during games. However, in order not to be associated with the brand, he would peel off the Gatorade tag before drinking it.
During the 2014 NBA Finals, King James cramped up, which caused the relationship between LeBron and Gatorade to be tarnished. Gatorade took to social media to poke fun at Powerade and LeBron, but later apologized. LeBron responded with a subtle dig, not mentioning Gatorade by name, “I don’t care about that sports group, the drink group that I’m not even going to say their name. I’m not going to give them a light in The Finals…”
Although there are instances of athletes showing their dislike for Gatorade, the famous sports drink has a plethora of notable athletes on its roster. Gatorade has sponsorships with global athletes like Luka Dončić, NBA champion Jayson Tatum, WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, and the arguable GOAT Michael Jordan, to name a few.