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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff WriterOct 21, 2024, 04:10 PM ET
- Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
- Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.
Nike has reached a 12-year contract extension agreement with the NBA and WNBA to continue to be the official global outfitter for the professional basketball leagues, sources told ESPN on Monday.
The pact will result in Nike, which began designing and manufacturing the official NBA, WNBA and G League uniforms and apparel in 2017, continuing the partnership through two decades. The agreement also includes a marketing and content partnership, which three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson cited as perhaps the biggest benefit of her league’s association with Nike since she became a pro in 2018.
“Back when I was a rookie not that long ago, there wasn’t a whole lot of ways to really tell your story,” Wilson told ESPN in a phone interview Monday. “It wasn’t like people wanted to know A’ja outside the uniform because they never saw it before. They never saw it in a WNBA player before, as much as we see it now. I think that comes from Nike kind of taking that chance and being like, ‘No, we want to tell these ladies’ stories. We want to get them out there to show that it’s deeper than just a uniform.'”
Sal LaRocca, the NBA’s president of global partnerships, told ESPN that the league did not have any second thoughts about continuing the business relationship, seeing Nike as a mutual investor in the sport of basketball.
“It was obvious to us that the deal was working as good as it could be from the NBA’s perspective,” LaRocca told ESPN. “Nike’s investment in the NBA, the WNBA, the G League, grassroots basketball, boys and girls elite-level basketball, is critical — we think — to our long-term goals to continue to grow the sport of basketball on a global basis.”
The extension includes a pledge from both the leagues and the sports lifestyle company to facilitate youth basketball leagues — including consideration being paid to coaching, training and player development. Both sides will also invest programming and resources specifically aimed at increasing access to the sport worldwide, with a specific focus on improving the playing experience for girls of all ages and skill levels.
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And existing programs, including the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL), Jr. NBA, Basketball Without Borders (BWB) and Her Time to Play will continue to be supported and expanded. While Nike has been an NBA partner since 1992, its relationship as the official uniform supplier of the league got off to an imperfect start when, in the early going of the 2017-18 season, players’ jerseys were ripping on the court unintentionally.
LaRocca said Nike’s response to the problem — a problem that arose from the supplier’s desire to design light-weight jerseys to meet the players’ demands — only strengthened the working relationship between the companies.
“In their ongoing quest to innovate, there were some unintended consequences,” LaRocca said. “But the thing about Nike from our perspective, as difficult as it was, made it something we could get past pretty quickly with their commitment to remedy it. And once they isolated what the issue was, it was a very quick response, and then it just didn’t happen anymore.
“So … there are things that are always going to come up, that are not planned, that you have to focus on remedying quickly. And Nike did that and, and they demonstrated once again why they’re best in class.”
Tanya Hvizdak, the vice president of athlete sports marketing at Nike, told ESPN that the partnership is a major priority for the company.
“When you think about just the future of sport, this is going to be such a foundation for us,” Hvizdak said. “The growth of the game [of basketball] has been massive. You saw everything around the participation and the viewership coming out of the Olympics and the NBA is just going to be an opportunity around that 365 [day] consumer demand, to continue to build off of that.”
Wilson, who announced her own signature shoe with Nike in May, the A’One, admitted that way she wears her uniform might drive Nike up the wall, however.
“I feel like sometimes I’m Nike’s biggest nightmare when it comes to their uniform because I will butcher it up,” Wilson said with a laugh. “I obviously cut a whole leg sleeve. I roll my shorts and I tuck my jersey and I can only imagine how the Nike reps scream and pull their hair out when they see me.
“But I feel like that’s just my personality and that’s what I like to bring to the court.”
