After every agent and agency pursued the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Zion Williamson has signed with CAA Sports.
“This is going to be one of the most marketable players off the court who has come into the league since LeBron James,” said Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN’s Senior NBA Insider. “Possibly a record setting rookie shoe deal, maybe the biggest since LeBron. This is like a moon landing for an agency to sign Zion Williamson.”
Austin Brown and Lisa Joseph-Metelus of CAA will represent Williamson. Austin Brown represents several NBA players including Donovan Mitchell, D’Angelo Russell, Rodney Hood, Collin Sexton and Jaren Jackson. Lisa Joseph-Metelus worked very closely with Dwayne Wade throughout his career especially with his off the court endeavors.
The 6-foot-7 generational talent, Williamson, is expected to be the first overall pick of the New Orleans Pelicans at the NBA Draft in Brooklyn on June 20. For a player, being the first overall pick is a huge achievement, and can even increase the number of fans they get in the long run. If this is the case, it won’t be long until people will be looking for collectibles of this popular athlete, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that places like Buyside have a guide to Zion Williamson sports cards and how you can get your hands on one. You will be able to celebrate the life and triumphs of this great athlete as he continues his path to greatness.
Brown and Joseph-Metelus will be responsible for navigating Williamson through various endorsement deals, including his potential record setting rookie shoe deal which could be worth close to $100-million. Sonny Vaccaro, former Nike, Adidas and Reebok executive who has negotiated shoe deals for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, told ESPN, “In my lifetime, I think it’s going to be the biggest bidding war ever done”.
In addition to the Naismith Award winner averaging 22.6 points and 8.9 rebounds in his freshman campaign for the Blue Devils, Williamson’s 3.3 million Instagram followers and more than 324,400 Twitter followers make him an even more desirable target for corporations across the globe. “If Zion doesn’t change, I predict that he will be the first basketball athlete at 18 years old that the world is rooting for to become a billionaire. I say billionaire, very easily,” Vaccaro said. “He is going to have an opportunity to be the face of every company and every major corporation. He is the most marketable person I’ve seen, for a lot of different reasons.”