Guards sell shoes. It’s great if you have the best big men of the era wearing your shoes, but guards are the guys that move the product.
With that in mind, as had been expected to happen Damian Lillard has reached a massive new shoe deal with adidas, an extension of his existing deal, the company announced Monday.
“adidas has been great to me over my first two seasons,” Lillard said in a released statement. “I’ve had the opportunity to wear a lot of great product, help design special versions of shoes, be a part of TV commercials and travel the world with the brand. I’m excited for what the future holds for me and adidas.”
Lillard was the NBA Rookie of the Year last year and this season made the All-Star Team averaging 20.8 points and 5.6 rebounds a game, helping lead the Trail Blazers to the playoffs.
The contract is the third biggest shoe deal out there, reports Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com (although figures on shoe contract size are not public, so take it with a grain of salt).
The deal, according to another source, is an eight-year contract that has the potential to stretch out to 10 years if he reaches certain incentive clauses. We’ve confirmed Lillard’s new contract is slightly less than that of Derrick Rose….
Due to Lillard reaching certain performance incentive clauses in his adidas rookie shoe deal, he was able to opt out at the end of the season to pursue a long-term, prosperous contract with adidas, Nike or other major competitors. Instead of waiting, Lillard’s representatives gave adidas an exclusive 30-day window to renegotiate before checking out other offers. That 30 days was up on April. 1.
Adidas might be overpaying a little, but that was the price they had to keep him. Adidas also has Rose, Dwight Howard, Joakim Noah, Jeremy Lin, John Wall and others.