Kevin Plank was a business major and football player at the University of Maryland when he spotted a really new product idea. The idea is to offer football players a T$-$shirt that deeps players cool, dry and light instead of becoming sweat$-$soaked and hence heavy and uncomfortable during football practices and games. However, he could not afford a big advertising campaign to tout the benefits of his new product. Nor did he have relationships with the established retailers. Despite the above$-$mentioned challenges, Mr$.$ Plank managed to pull off an initial success of selling a first batch of $500$ shirts loaded on his personal SUV during trips across college campuses in the Southeast. The success was made possible by his ability to make friends who were players in the National Football League and who were willing to try his prototype shirts and spread words out on his behalf. One of such friends, for example, is named Eric Ogbogu, a former Plank teammate but playing for Dallas Cowboys at the time. Mr$.$ Plank's leadership power is most likely to be which of the following?

A$.$ Reward power

B$.$ Coercive power

C$.$ Legitimate power

D$.$ Referent power