Fresh off of winning Olympic gold, Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden are among a few Team USA basketball athletes to star in a new round of spots from BBDO New York for Foot Locker. ESPN’s Darren Rovell is already raving that “Tear Away” (above) could be the “commercial of the year,” though we’ll stop short of that for now. Still, considering Team USA’s success in London and the fairly entertaining ideas put forth here, we can consider this a win-win for BBDO, which picked up creative duties for Foot Locker last fall. While “Tear Away” has Rovell gushing, we were just as amused by “The Melo’s” (below) starring Harden and Westbrook’s Olympics teammate Carmelo Anthony, who perhaps is taking a knock at his own inflated ego. Credits and one more spot starring, Westbrook, Kevin Love and the Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh after the jump.

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A few weeks ago, Adidas and 180LA turned heads with a decidedly strange music video for “Fast Don’t Lie,” the anthem for its new basketball campaign. Featuring NBA stars Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard along with comedian Ken Jeong moonlighting as nutty rich tycoon “Slim Chin,” we had a feeling we weren’t seeing the last of the trio (or Jeong’s pet cheetah).

As it turns out, Adidas and has an entire YouTube channel dedicated to the misadventures of Slim Chin and his lightning-fast, musically inclined athletic friends. Along with the videos, there’s an interactive portion (co-created with 180 Amsterdam) where fans can step into Derrick Rose’s Adidas kicks to drive to the hoop on Slim Chin’s own lavish court, performing aerial dunking maneuvers from an interactive, first-person perspective.

180LA copywriter Eric Helin says the campaign uses Jeong’s popularity to “grab basketball crazed kids attention.” While stars like Rose and Howard can probably do that on their own, watching Ken Jeong ride a jet-ski around his massive pool is pretty hard for anyone to ignore.

Full credits for the spots after the jump.

More: “Adidas Uses NBA Talent for Bizarre ‘Fast Don’t Lie’ Slow Jam”

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