In a report by ESPN, adidas strutted its feathers for James Harden by offering the soon-to-be free agent in footwear sponsorship $200 million over 13 years, if Nike declines to renew Harden’s contract by the end of next week.
After signing an extension in 2012 with the Houston Rockets worth $80 million, a ‘yes’ from Harden would make him more valuable to adidas than the organization, whose contract also expires simultaneously with adidas’ NBA deal.
While sporting the Hyperchase for a majority of the 2014-15 NBA season, Nike has an unstable past acquiring talent, such as Stephen Curry and Jordan Spieth. Both athletes were snatched up by Under Armour, who is seeing huge upside potential, thanks to NBA/MVP honors in Curry and ownage of the golf circuit with Spieth.
Delving more personally into the potential adidas-Harden duo is Harden’s relationship with Khloe Kardashian, who is now an in-law to Kanye West and his adidas Yeezy footwear line.
Although adidas has long-term deals with John Wall (2014-15: 1,387 PT, 792 AST, 356 REB, .445 FG, .785 FT), Damian Lillard (2014-15: 1,720 PT, 507 AST, 376 REB, .434 FG, .864 FT) and Derrick Rose (2014-15: 904 PT, 251 AST, 161 REB, .405 FG, .813 FT), all three – in terms of Adidas sneaker sales – have experienced a drought over the last year.
adidas has suffered the slings and arrows of sponsorship this year by losing a bidding competition to resupply the University of Michigan with its garments, but maintained to restore a beacon of hope with Manchester United, whose 10-year/$128 million deal activated August 1, 2015.
Representing a fraction of the NBA footwear pie at 5 percent market share, latching onto James Harden, who’s jersey ranked seventh overall in sales last season, would make for a wise executive decision for adidas to continue upstaging Nike in the bidding war.
Two months prior, the NBA awarded Nike with an 8-year partnership with a tab of $1 billion as an on-court apparel provider, which won’t take official effect until the 2017-18 season. In the allotted agreement – and unlike its stances with Reebok and adidas – the Nike swoosh will appear on uniforms.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
