LaVar Ball Thinks He Can Get A $1 BILLION Shoe Deal For His Sons
ByJoey Heldon March 21, 2017inArticles›Sports News
Lonzo Ball is currently a member of the UCLA Bruins. His team is one of the most entertaining in college basketball, evoking memories of the old Showtime Lakers, who played not too far down the road at the Great Western Forum.
Lonzo has two siblings in high school who have committed to the Bruins, LiAngelo and LiMelo. And their father, LaVar, wants them all to receive the same shoe deal, and he has his asking price already: $1 billion .
As the elder Ball told USA Today: " A billion dollars, it has to be there. That’s our number, a billion, straight out of the gate. And you don’t even have to give it to me all up front. Give us $100 million a year. "
If Lonzo doesn’t sign with Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour out of college, Ball said he’d sign him to his Big Baller Brand. He filed for the trademark for that name last year and was recently granted the trademark for use on athletic apparel.
Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images
Ball, who has compared Lonzo to Steph Curry and claimed he himself could take Michael Jordan one-on-one, is going after Jordan in another area: fashion. The Big Baller Brand would be even pricier than Jordan Brand gear. It’s no surprise from a man who loves glitz and glamor. His two sons that have a driver’s license both drive $100,000 BMWs.
Ball may find it difficult to get a package deal for all of his sons, though. The earliest it could even happen is March 2020, when the youngest son would have completed his freshman year of college. Lonzo will likely be a top 3 pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, LiAngelo will attend UCLA next year, and LaMelo has two more years of high school before he’ll head to the Bruins.
A billion dollar endorsement deal isn’t entirely unheard of: Nike signed LeBron James to a lifetime deal in December 2015. That contract’s reported value is more than $1 billion. And Jordan receives $100 million annually from Nike in guarantees and royalties for his Jordan Brand. Nobody else makes more than $30 million a year.
So, will we expect to see the Balls rocking the same shoes in the next few years? A lot of it may have to do with how Lonzo and the Bruins do this year. Returning to the Final Four or even taking home a championship would go a long way towards building buzz as Ball heads to the NBA.
For now, LaVar is serving as hype man. And he wants to make sure the entire world knows about his sons.
- LaVar Ball Net Worth
- Lavar Ball Reportedly Turned Down $10 Million Lonzo Ball Shoe Deals
- Next Season Kevin Durant Will Make WAY More Money Wearing Shoes Than Playing Basketball…
- Zion Williamson Just Signed The Largest Annual Shoe Deal For A Rookie – Here’s How Much He’ll Make
- Just How Badly Is Jordan Brand Crushing Other Shoe Competition?
- Nobody Wants To Give Lonzo Ball A Shoe Deal, So His Dad Is Releasing His Own Shoe
Next Season Kevin Durant Will Make WAY More Money Wearing Shoes Than Playing Basketball…
ByBrian Warneron August 20, 2014inArticles›Celebrity News
When Kevin Durant was a rookie, he had two competing companies desperately vying to sign the future super star to a shoe contract. As you might have guessed, those two companies were Nike and Adidas . Amazingly, Kevin opted to go with Nike despite the fact that their contract would pay $22 million LESS than than the one offered by Adidas. He must have been a big Nike fan! Even after you take out $22 million, Kevin’s rookie deal was still very lucrative. Nike paid him $60 million over seven seasons, roughly $8.5 million per year. That Nike deal is about to expire, so Kevin once again finds himself accepting offers as a shoe free agent. So, is Adidas gonna pony up the dough to finally get their man? Or is Nike gonna cough up a truck-load of cash to keep one of the league’s most popular and talented players? Actually, believe it or not, neither of these sportswear giants are even in the running for Kevin Durant this time around…
Kevin Durant / Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
If the reports are true, Kevin Durant is on the verge of signing an absolutely ginormous shoe deal with… Under Armour . Under Armour will reportedly pay Durant $30 million per year for the entire length of the contract, which is believed to be seven years. That’s $210 million , by the way. As you may have guessed from the title of this article, $30 million is WAY more money than Kevin will earn on the court next season. During the 2014-2015 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are on track to pay Kevin $19 million . During the 2015-2016 season, he will earn $20 million . At that point, Kevin becomes a free agent. Oh, and by the way, Adidas did make a run at trying to sign Kevin this time around, but once the bidding got up to $20 million per year, they bowed out.
Under Armour may seem like an odd choice considering the fact that the company isn’t really known at all for their basketball shoes. In fact, out of Under Armour’s $683 million total 2013 revenues, only around $6 million came from selling basketball shoes. That’s a little bit less than 1% . It may also interest you to know that Under Armour’s annual marketing budget is roughly $300 million , so by the power of math, if this deal goes through, 10% of their 2014 budget will be spent on this one deal. Kind of a big gamble.
If Lebron’s rookie shoe deal with Nike was worth $90 million and Durant’s was worth $60 million (and could have been $82 million if he had gone with Adidas), surely today’s rookies must be raking in the cash, right? I mean, even John Wall made $25 million over five years with Reebok, when signed with them four years ago. Well, for whatever reason, the value of rookie shoe contracts has plummeted over the last few years. Maybe Nike and Adidas have been burned a few too many times by top heavy contracts with players who don’t end up panning out.
Andrew Wiggins was the #1 draft pick this year. He recently signed a contract with Adidas that will pay him… $2 million per year over five years. That’s $10 million for those of you who are bad at math. LeBron made more off Nike in his first year, when you include his signing bonus.
It’s a trend happening around the league. Many companies just aren’t willing to risk throwing so much money at an unproven rookie nowadays. As a lot of the athletes coming out now only play one year in college, there isn’t even really a lot of collegiate footage to rely on. Also keep in mind that Nike did not earn a profit off their deal with Lebron until 2012, almost a full decade into his NBA career. Nike has reportedly not broken even yet on their deal with Durant, so they probably wont ever at this point.
It’s unclear yet whether or not this deal with Kevin Durant will payoff for Under Armour. Let me remind everyone that back in 2012, Dwyane Wade ditched his $10 million Nike contract to sign with a Chinese shoe company called Li-Ning . No one in the US had ever heard of Li-Ning back then, and I dont think much has changed in the last two years. So this is clearly a very risky move for Under Armour. Only time will tell how this will turn out.
- Nike Makes Kevin Durant An Offer He Can’t Refuse (And Under Armour Sulks To The Exits)
- Kevin Durant Net Worth
- Kevin Durant Has Quietly Been Investing In Companies All Year
- Kevin Durant Invests In Pizza Chain, Pieology
- Kevin Durant’s One-Year Contracts Might Ultimately Lead To The End Of The Warriors Dynasty
- Kevin Durant Just Launched A $275 Million SPAC – What Does That Mean And How Rich Could It Make Him?
