The Powerade feed was silent other than this tweet earlier in the game congratulating their spokesman on a career milestone.
Gatorade apologized Friday for the comments and also deleted the tweets. The only tweet that Gatorade left on its feed related to the matter Friday had been posted late in Game 1, saying, \"With a game this hot, we're right at home.\"
\"Our apologies for our response to fans' tweets during (Thursday) night's Heat vs. Spurs game,\" Gatorade said in a release. \"We got caught up in the heat of the battle. As a longtime partner of the Miami Heat, we support the entire team.\"
While Gatorade took shots at Powerade, whose current tagline using James is \"Got what it takes to keep up?,\" the truth is James actually drinks Gatorade on the bench. He takes the label off and uses blank white towels that don't have the Gatorade logo on them so as not to overtly endorse his competitor.
James' teammate Dwyane Wade is Gatorade's main NBA spokesman, along with Paul George of the Indiana Pacers.
Gatorade's market share of the U.S. sports drink market, which had been hovering around 80 percent for decades, has been on the decline recently. In 2013, Gatorade had 69.5 percent of the U.S. sports drink market, while Powerade had 28.8 percent, according to industry trade publication Beverage Digest.
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