Presumptive No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham has signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Nike, according to ESPN’s Nick DePaula. The deal is reportedly the largest of any player in Cunningham’s draft class.
The Detroit Pistons own the first pick in the draft and are likely to select Cunningham, and if not, it will be because they traded the pick and someone else will nab Cade. He seems destined to go No. 1.
Cunningham also wore Nike as part of its endorsement deal with Oklahoma State, where Cade earned Player of the Year honors and was named a consensus All-American.
that’s just the biggest endorsement coup for the soon-to-be face of a franchise, as DePaula also reports Cunningham also has secured deals to endorse plant-based food, an energy drink, cryptocurrency, a photo-sharing app, trading cards and memorabilia.
“More than anything, they show that athletes are more than just athletes,” Cunningham told ESPN. “They really put the right message out for people to see. That was important to me. … I felt like it was a perfect match for me.”
Nike’s iconic marketing also resonated with Cunningham.
“We all can tell a Nike commercial as soon as they come on,” he said. “Those things matter to me, and I want to be associated with a brand like that,” he told ESPN.
I hope he’s willing to buy dinner for all his new teammates. Except maybe Jerami Grant, he can get his own.
I’m not well-versed in shoe culture, but when was the last time the Detroit Pistons had a player with a signature shoe while he was wearing a Pistons uniform? I guess Derrick Rose, technically, but I don’t think anyone associates Rose with the Pistons despite his 65-game stint in Detroit.
Before that? Allen Iverson on the sad, franchise-wrecking decline of his career. Then the Grant Hill FILA’s, which everyone in my grade school wanted. Point being, it’s been a while since you could say the Pistons and marketable star in the same sentence.
The NBA Draft is two days away.