NEW YORK — Nike‘s new chief govt officer Elliott Hill made the cross-country trek to New York on Monday evening to assist the corporate announce an prolonged long-term international settlement with the NBA and WNBA and the NBA G League.
Throughout a 90-minute presentation at its New York Metropolis headquarters, the corporate paraded out a number of the sport’s huge names together with WNBA stars A’ja Wilson, Sue Fowl and Caitlin Clark, who joined nearly, Sabrina Ionescu, who led the New York Liberty to the WNBA championship on Sunday evening, together with NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who additionally appeared on digicam. The athletes mentioned their love of the game and provided up ideas on the way it may proceed to develop. That included serving as position fashions for younger ladies and boys, and embracing the newfound vitality surrounding the game, notably the WNBA, which simply capped off a season the place it set viewership and attendance data.
A part of sustaining the momentum will fall to Nike, which has prolonged its rights over 12 further seasons to design and manufacture NBA, WNBA and G League uniforms, on-court attire and fan attire.
“Nike has all the time been greater than a league sponsor — we’re a strategic accomplice with an unwavering dedication to rising the sport, alongside the NBA, WNBA and NBA G League,” mentioned Hill. “Our collective energy, international attain and real love for the sport will solely proceed to create new pathways and alternatives for gamers and followers.”
On the occasion, the CEO, who’s being charged to reignite the spark on the nation’s largest sports activities model, mentioned that over the previous 50-plus years of Nike’s existence, “It’s been very a lot about placing the athlete on the middle of the dialog. That helps drive the innovation round product, the storytelling, and many others. So we’ll proceed to do to do this. It’s all the time been about progress and rising the game all over the world. Because it pertains to to our partnership, it’s very a lot in the identical vein . . . to attempt to lengthen the sport of basketball past the elite athlete to grassroots, males’s, girls’s, boys, ladies, completely different codecs, three on three — go down the listing. Internationally can be an enormous piece of how we develop the sport of basketball. And I might add transferring past simply on-court to life-style and the tradition of basketball.”
The deal additionally contains new content material initiatives, a renewed dedication to grassroots basketball, in addition to the continued improvement of a joint membership program that delivers advantages to followers of the manufacturers by way of merchandise, content material and experiences, Nike mentioned.
Nike Inc. and the Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation (NBPA) additionally prolonged their group license settlement, making the sports activities model an official accomplice of the NBPA.
“This partnership extension displays our enduring dedication to rising the sport, championing basketball tradition and supporting the subsequent technology of athletes,” mentioned Sarah Mensah, president of the Jordan Model. “We put athletes, and the sport, on the middle of all we do, and this extension serves to additional provoke hoopers behind a shared pursuit of greatness as solely Nike, Inc. and our companions can.”
Michael Jordan, maybe the very best basketball participant of all time and a longtime Nike accomplice, was not in attendance in particular person or on display.
“Nike is inextricably linked to basketball and has helped gasoline the expansion and innovation round our sport for many years,” mentioned NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who was on stage in the course of the occasion. “With an added concentrate on youth basketball, our expanded partnership will create much more alternatives for aspiring gamers to study and compete in any respect ranges and for followers of all ages to have interaction with the NBA and WNBA.”
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was additionally in attendance, mentioned, “Since our league’s inception, Nike has dedicated to a shared imaginative and prescient for women and girls’s basketball. Our continued partnership is a chance to fortify avenues for improvement and improve contact factors throughout our dynamic fanbase, whereas globally showcasing the WNBA.”
Collectively, Nike and the leagues will introduce applications and sources that intention to make youth basketball accessible and scalable, present entry to teaching, coaching, on-court improvement curriculum and taking part in requirements to youth of all backgrounds and talents. They can even create basketball programming and sources designed to extend entry to the game and enhance the taking part in expertise for women of all ranges and work to improve participant, coach and program improvement alternatives within the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League.
Nike can even increase its presence throughout marquee league occasions together with the NBA All-Star, WNBA All-Star, the NBA Draft Mix, the WNBA Draft, WNBA Changemakers and different occasions.
Nike has been an NBA accomplice since 1992 and the official on-court clothing store because the 2017-18 season. It has been a advertising accomplice of the WNBA since its inception in 1997 and a advertising accomplice of the NBA G League because the 2017-18 season.
