Featured Columnist IVDecember 17, 2024
Sean Rayford/Getty Photographs
Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson agreed to a six-year contract extension with Nike that is “one of many richest shoe offers” in girls’s basketball, in response to ESPN’s Shams Charania and Alexa Philippou.
Boardroom’s Nick DePaula first reported in Could the 2 sides had prolonged their partnership, information that coincided with Nike asserting a signature shoe for Wilson that can drop subsequent spring.
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
A’ja Wilson’s signature sneaker, Nike A’One, is coming in 2025 🔥🙌
(through @_ajawilson22) pic.twitter.com/qriVDHVMgK
Charania and Philippou added that Wilson’s Nike deal will put her up there with the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark, New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu and USC’s JuJu Watkins. Clark will reportedly get $28 million general from her eight-year contract with the corporate.
The absence of a signature shoe deal for Wilson had been a supply of consternation for a lot of of her followers. It grew to become tougher and tougher to grasp why youthful, much less completed stars resembling Ionescu and Clark acquired their very own unique traces from Nike whereas one of many WNBA’s finest gamers wasn’t afforded the identical remedy.
Wilson’s efficiency on the courtroom in 2024 ensured the launch of her “A’One” sneaker will carry loads of buzz.
The 28-year-old ahead was the unanimous WNBA MVP after averaging 26.9 factors, 11.9 rebounds and a pair of.6 blocks. She was additionally the runner-up for Defensive Participant of the 12 months, placing collectively one of many single finest seasons in league historical past.
WNBA gamers throughout the board will finally see a significant bump in pay. Negotiations between the league and gamers’ union over a brand new collective bargaining settlement, one that can mirror the incoming media rights deal, are ongoing.
Within the case of Wilson, her off-court earnings will probably be supplementing her WNBA wage in an enormous manner shifting ahead.
