
A shoe deal is almost always the richest endorsement deal for an NBA player, typically making up more than half of their off-court income. A line of his own is all but certain in the near future.

His multi-year deal is worth an estimated $13 million annually, including reachable incentives, and ranks fifth among current NBA players. Zion didn’t come cheap for Nike after his Nike PG 2.5 shoe split open on national TV in February and left egg on the face of the $39 billion-in-revenue sports giant. “Athletes are very monetizable right now with social media, and Nike will participate in all of that content every time he does something memorable.”


“If Zion lives up to the hype, he is going to be a constant source of content creation for Nike,” says Kernan.
