On Thursday afternoon, news broke that Memphis Grizzlies rookie big man Jaren Jackson Jr. had signed a multi-year deal with Nike.
It seems like the last few days have been big for all of the top brands in the shoe market. Wednesday night news broke that the league would be taking restrictions off of what colors a player wore on a nightly basis. If you want to read up on that news before you continue this story, click here.
Getting signed by Nike is nothing to just breeze past. Jaren Jackson Jr., is officially in elite by joining the biggest shoe brand in the NBA. Nike holds three of the biggest contracts in the NBA to this day. According to Forbes.com, Jaren Jackson Jr., will join a family that includes LeBron James (32 million), Kevin Durant (25 million), and Kyrie Irving at eight million. The list goes on and on, and those contacts last forever.
It is still unclear how much the deal with Nike is, but within several years, if everything goes as planned, Jaren could be getting paid by Nike, and Memphis could have a star with a signature shoe with the biggest brand in the NBA.
Before there was any question about Jackson Jr’s choice of shoe brand, we saw him rocking the Nike’s at both Utah Summer League and Las Vegas Summer League.
In the photo you can see Jaren rocking a pair of one of Kevin Durant’s signature shoes. Jackson Jr., is one of the many guys that I am excited to see capitalize on the NBA’s rule change regarding color restrictions to shoes.
His personalty says a lot about those decisions, and with Jackson Jr., signing with Nike, he now joins Grizzlies Guard Mike Conley (with the Jordan Brand) on what they are wearing on a nightly basis.