The former Duke Basketball star and No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft, Zion Williamson, has agreed to a multi-year shoe deal with Jordan Brand.
The wait is over as Zion Williamson announced on social media on Tuesday afternoon that he will the next athlete to join Jordan Brand.
Williamson signed a multi-year deal with Jordan after multiple brands were in hot pursuit of the future NBA superstar. However, at the time this article was published the amount of the contract is still unknown.
It was reported that all of the major brands were trying to land Zion, including Nike, Adidas, Jordan, and Puma, but it was Jordan that prevailed in the end.
Puma signed the Top-2 draft picks in 2018, Deandre Ayton (Arizona) and Marvin Bagley III (Duke), while yesterday Williamson’s Duke teammate, Cam Reddish, agreed to a multi-year shoe deal with Nike.
Let’s Dance #JUMPMAN pic.twitter.com/Ra0mq4OwYQ
— Zion Williamson (@Zionwilliamson) July 23, 2019
The signings of Williamson with Jordan and Reddish with Nike leave R.J. Barrett as the lone 2018 Duke draftee that does not have a shoe deal yet, although you’d imagine that one will be coming soon for the Canadian superstar.
Zion’s high-flying ability and ridiculous production at Duke landed him this monster deal, but the incident that took place on February 20 made this process that much more important.
Less than a minute into Duke’s first game against North Carolina, Williamson tore threw his Nike shoe, which resulted in him missing the rest of that game and five more games before retuning during the ACC Tournament.
The current New Orleans Pelican was diagnosed with a knee sprain and then had a special Nike shoe made for him overseas while he recovered from the injury.
Williamson also suffered a knee bruise in his first NBA Summer League Game, but the Pelicans released a statement saying that he was held out for the rest of the summer as a precaution.
As Zion Williamson has also withdrawn his name from consideration for USA Basketball this summer to focus on his rookie season with the Pelicans, he gets another road block out of the way with his shoe deal.
Despite teaming up with a former Tar Heel, Jordan Brand can take Zion Williamson to heights only the greats like LeBron James and Kevin Durant have seen.
Zion also joins former Blue Devil Jayson Tatum as apart of the Jordan Family.
While many will wait anxiously to see how much the deal between Williamson and Jordan is worth, Zion now is in position to focus on basketball and let his game to the talking for the haters and doubters that are still out there.