Powerade and Gatorade exploit LeBron James for lamest brand war imaginable

LeBron James' Game 1 cramps became instant meme fodder and then, perhaps predictably, the premise for a weird brand feud playing out in 140 characters or less on social media.

Gatorade got things going after Game 1 by ribbing Powerade-endorsed James and suggesting he would not have struggled had he been quaffing their sports beverage. (The company later apologized when people noted Gatorade was the NBA's official drink, and that James had therefore been drinking it all game.)

Then when James played all of Game 2 cramp-free, Powerade seized on his rebound performance to make its own sales pitch.

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And so began the lamest, laziest brand war on the web. That is, until Sprite tried to cash in on the brouhaha, too.

At this rate, it's a safe bet that there's a Burger King social media team holed up somewhere prepping jokes to use during Game 3 about James "scoring" a Whopper.