Market Power: NBA Postseason Edition

The NBA postseason has been off to a thrilling start. With five out of the eight series in the first round going to seven games, you can’t ask for a more exciting start. There have also been some big headlines this postseason including Donald Sterling’s racist comments, Roy Hibbert’s disappearance for so many games and the Mark Jackson’s firing in Golden State after a first round exit to the Los Angeles Clippers. Even though there have been a number of headlines, I decided to take a different route by taking a look at which remaining players left in the NBA postseason companies should target to help market their company. I purposefully left out LeBron James and Kevin Durant in this because they are the two obvious picks. Here are my top three.

Is Damian Lillard Leaving Adidas?

Is Damian Lillard, the rising star of the Portland Trail Blazers, about to opt out? No, this isn’t about his contract with the Portland Trail Blazers when he was drafted in 2012. It’s about his shoe deal with Adidas. Damian Lillard signed a shoe endorsement deal during his rookie year with Adidas and it has incentives which allows him to opt out of his contract. 

John, Damian, and that boy Jrue

Last week Adidas released an advertisement spot for its newest basketball endeavor, the CrazyQuick shoe. The shoe which was released on May 1^st is being promoted by three of the NBA’s brightest, John Wall (Wizards), Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers), and Jrue Holiday (Sixers) with some assistance from hip-hop sensation, A$AP Rocky.