Courtesy of Nike.com
After a monthly battle between two well-known sports apparel giants opting for the services of the current MVP of the National Basketball Association, Kevin Durant signed a 10-year deal with Nike that has the potential to reach $300 million and includes a $50 million retirement package. This deal will have Durant repping “The Swoosh” until 2024.
Excited and humbled to sign back with the swoosh!
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) September 1, 2014
In 2007, when Durant was only a year out of high school, signed a seven-year Nike deal worth at least $60 million. The Oklahoma City Thunder star turned down more money from Adidas and signed with Nike. That deal expired this summer and Under Armour moved in with a very lucrative offer sheet. The Baltimore-based company wants to get a firm grip of basketball shoe market, which is dominated by Nike and Nike’s Jordan Brand. The Swoosh has been keeping a watchful eye on their closest rival and how Under Armour has been moving up in the ranks in terms of value. Both Nike and Under Armour control almost 95 percent of the basketball shoe apparel market.
UA has Golden State Warriors All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, Charlotte Hornets Kemba Walker and Detroit Pistons Brandon Jennings under contract, but they believed if they could snag the Baltimore-area native Durant, he could help chip away at Nike’s stranglehold and increase its exposure worldwide.
Under Armour tried to hit a home run by offering Durant 10-year, $250-million dollar offer, which included shares of stock, hoping that the offer was just too big for Durant to turn down. UA’s endorser Kent Bazemore shot KD a tweet about his choices and Warriors guard Andre Iguodala gave a counter-strike tweet.
@24Bazemore I had a better shot at Halle berry!
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) September 1, 2014
We might not know how close Durant was to leaving Nike, since the KD line of shoes and apparel are starting to become trendy. Durant may or may not directly bring in the amount of revenue that Nike spent to keep him, he does represent the continuation of Nike having the best players in the world with Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, and Durant.
Durant and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports Management company really need to thank Under Armour for helping and getting the most out of this new deal with Nike. Maybe this was a well-planned attack? Who knows, but there’s another individual happy of the new Durant contract with Nike.
Happy to have the homie @KDTrey5 stayin with the @Nike@nikebasketball family! Congrats my brother! Like Dj Khalid would say “We The Best”!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 1, 2014
You can rest assure that LeBron James will use this contract as leverage when his deal with Nike is expiring. We will just have to wait and see.
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