Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Marketing and Sponsorship

Sources: Durant, Under Armour Have Shoe Deal On Table Worth As Much As $285M

Roc Nation Sports yesterday informed Nike that Thunder F Kevin Durant "has a deal on the table with Under Armour" worth between $265-285M over 10 years, according to sources cited by Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. The deal includes UA stock and "other incentives, such [as] a community center built in his mother's name." Nike will "have the right to match, which is a condition of Durant's current contract with the brand." Sources said that Nike's last offer "would have given Durant a base and a minimum royalty guarantee that would equal no less" than $20M a year. If UA "wins the services of Durant, it would be the largest sponsorship deal the company has ever committed to." Durant's shoe deal free agency to UA "turned out to be a bigger deal because of the interest expressed" by Founder, Chair & CEO Kevin Plank. Sources said that Plank felt Durant could "accomplish two major goals: growing its small shoe business and improving its international presence that has been lagging behind its North American sales growth." Making things "more appealing" was the fact that UA is a Baltimore-based company, just 36 miles northeast of Durant's hometown of Seat Pleasant, Md. (ESPN.com, 8/20). ESPN’s Stephan A. Smith said Durant deserves such a large deal "because you don’t have to worry about him misrepresenting the game." Smith added, "You don’t have to worry about him not wanting to play the game. You don’t have to worry about his philanthropy, which obviously is going to put him a position to do a lot of great things. I like the kind of message a deal like this sends.” ESPN's Skip Bayless: “It is unbelievable what is happening to this guy. He hasn’t won big yet, but they are betting on a lot of big things happening for Kevin Durant” (“First Take,” ESPN2, 8/21). See the full endorsement portfolio for Kevin Durant at Resource Guide LIVE.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/08/21/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Durant.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/08/21/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Durant.aspx

CLOSE