Zion Williamson will be the hottest commodity on the sneaker free agent market the moment he declares for the NBA Draft, whenever Duke’s season comes to an end.
Duke, of course, is a Nike school and Williamson famously blew through a pair of PG2.5s, causing him to sprain his knee which has kept him out of the last three games. The future No. 1 overall pick is expected back by the time Duke is playing in the ACC Tournament next week, although unlikely to play in Chapel Hill this Saturday in their rematch with UNC, but all talk about Zion comes with an eye to the NBA.
Every sneaker company will be trying to throw the bag at Williamson, and no one would be surprised if he finds himself with one of, if not the, richest shoe deals ever for a rookie. However, the question is who will it be. Nike has him in their gear right now, but in high school he played in adidas, regularly wearing Harden’s signature line. On Wednesday, Williamson hopped on Instagram Live to let his fans watch him play some video games and he just so happened to be wearing a full adidas tracksuit.
Zion goes live on Instagram, thought it was some announcement. Nope. Just playing video games IN FULL ADIDAS get up. pic.twitter.com/6pdPb3Of5K
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 6, 2019
Now, as someone that owns that tracksuit I cannot blame Zion because it’s wildly comfy, but it certainly raised some eyebrows and indicates that the soon-to-be free agent on the sneaker market will be very interested in the brand with the three stripes. Now, it will all come down to money and opportunity with Zion’s shoe deal, and you can bet the bidding war will be strong from all involved parties that want to get the most hyped prospect in years in their gear.
Still, this seems like a little bit of a reminder to Nike that they’ll have to come strong to get him in swooshes over stripes come June.
