Imagine you’re a Duke University nerd trying to get some exercise on a Tuesday so you head over to the rec center to play some pickup basketball. You figure it will just be a bunch of other nerds playing some ball and then you’ll go grab a Starbucks before calling it a night. Then in walks the Zion Williamson, the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.
Yeah, it’s going to get ugly, but at least you can say down the road that you ran up and down the court and the guy was nice enough not to fully destroy a backboard. God knows Duke doesn’t have the money laying around to fix that thing.
I guess Zion is just waiting for that first check to hit his bank account.
Long before he steps on an NBA court, the projected No. 1 overall pick in June’s NBA draft is expected to land a sneaker endorsement deal that will make him far richer than his first NBA contract will.
In fact, many in the sneaker industry expect that Williamson’s eventual deal will make him one of the three highest-paid rookie sneaker endorsers ever, joining the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
“In my lifetime, I think it’s going to be the biggest bidding war ever done,” said Sonny Vaccaro, the famed former marketing executive with Nike, Adidas and Reebok. “I would put them all on go.”
Zion already hitting the intramural courts at Duke…maybe he's coming back for another season pic.twitter.com/DUS56SQbm6
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) April 3, 2019
