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Even though Lonzo Ball will be one of the very first players selected in the NBA Draft, shoe companies want nothing to do with him. That’s because Lonzo’s dad LaVar is obsessed with his Big Baller Brand, making it insanely difficult for his first-team, All-American son to cash in on an easy payday.
It’s been reported that Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas are all out on the 6’6″ point guard, which is absolutely crazy news. Despite the NBA Draft being less than two months away and virtually every mock draft on the internet having Lonzo as a top-three pick, LaVar refuses to play ball with the sneaker titans that are itching to fork over boatloads of cash.
Via ESPN:
Never in the history of modern-day shoe endorsements have the big companies all stepped away from a potential top pick nearly two months before the NBA draft. But LaVar, who has been representing Lonzo in the deal, has offered something that has no precedent.
In his meetings with all three companies, LaVar insisted that they license his upstart Big Baller Brand from him, according to the companies. He also showed the companies a shoe prototype that he hoped would be Lonzo’s first shoe.
“We’ve said from the beginning, we aren’t looking for an endorsement deal,” LaVar told ESPN. “We’re looking for co-branding, a true partner. But they’re not ready for that because they’re not used to that model. But hey, the taxi industry wasn’t ready for Uber, either.”
Last week, Nike consultant George Raveling, at SportsBusiness Journal’s World Congress of Sports, called LaVar “the worst thing to happen to basketball in the last hundred years.”
LaVar is now going to try to make a deal with shoe companies in China, so we’ll see how that works out. But if he keeps pissing off everybody in the industry, his son might end up hooping in Starburys or those ridiculous ass Latrell Sprewell shoes with spinning rims on them. The goddamn deadbeat dad from The Waterboy had more business acumen than this dude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A2WXEjOl4Y
