Kawhi Leonard is now a Toronto Raptor after having his trade request granted by the Spurs in a blockbuster that brought DeMar DeRozan back to San Antonio. However, the Raptors won’t be the only new team Leonard will be joining this offseason.
A portion of the issue Leonard apparently had with being in San Antonio was it being a small market that didn’t afford him the best possible endorsement deals and limited his earning potential outside of basketball. The flip side of that, of course, is that Leonard isn’t exactly the most outgoing personality with which a brand can build a campaign around — even his style of play is more “fundamentally sound greatness” than “eye-popping greatness.”
So Leonard found himself at an impasse with regards to his sneaker deal with Jordan Brand when they came to him with a four-year extension worth $22 million this season. Leonard balked at the offer, apparently hoping to find a larger deal if he could find himself in a larger market, and now it appears he will have that chance as Jordan has decided to let him walk, per ESPN’s Nick DePaula.
After making a strong 4 year / $22 Million extension offer to Kawhi Leonard earlier this year that was turned down, Jordan Brand plans to let Leonard walk this fall once his deal expires in October, according to industry sources.
— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) July 24, 2018
That leaves Leonard as one of the top sneaker free agents, alongside Gordon Hayward and Joel Embiid, but the question remains as to what his value is for a sneaker brand. As DePaula notes, Leonard has no social media presence — the exact opposite of Embiid — and when Jordan made him the face of their “Like Mike” campaign last year it got very little traction. That could be chalked up to him being on a small market team, or it could be that he’s simply not a star that connects with fans because he has, to this point, never made much of an effort to do so.
Leonard is an all-world talent, one of the five best players in the NBA when healthy, but how he plays and interacts with fans/media has as much to do with him being overlooked as him being in San Antonio. Now he’s in Toronto, a much bigger market but one that also comes with it’s own unique issues for brands as the majority of exposure for Raptors players comes in Canada, not the U.S.
It will be fascinating to see what offers come in for Leonard — and from what brands — this fall when his deal officially ends in October. Jordan rarely hands out massive deals, so it stands to reason he’ll be able to get more from someone else, but he’s almost assuredly not going to find one of the super-sneaker contracts that the likes of Kevin Durant and James Harden have been able to get in recent years. Nike and adidas might be less willing to break the bank for Leonard than a company looking to make a bigger splash, like, say, Puma who just got back in the game and could use a current star to join their stable of top rookies.
