Adidas signs first NIL deal with girls’ high school basketball player
Courtesy: Adidas
Adidas has signed no doubt one of its youngest female athletes but.
The German sports actions apparel stamp on Thursday equipped the signing of Kaleena Smith as its first excessive faculty woman’s basketball accomplice below a title, image and likeness, or NIL, deal.
Smith, a 16-year extinct sophomore in Ontario, California, is the top likely-rated recruit in the class of 2027. She has already received practically 20 college presents from applications collectively with the College of Southern California, the College of Louisville, the College of Connecticut, the College of California, Los Angeles, Louisiana Tell College and the College of South Carolina.
The younger basketball phenomenon represents Candace Parker’s first signing since she took over as president of Adidas ladies’s basketball in Can also merely. Parker, a dilapidated first-round WNBA draft pick, played 16 seasons in the WNBA and is a three-time WNBA champion and 7-time WNBA All-Giant title.
Adidas tapped her to support evolve the corporate’s ladies’s basketball replace.
Kaleena Smith is Candace Parker’s first signing since joining Adidas in Can also merely.
Courtesy: Adidas
“Signing Kaleena as our first excessive faculty NIL ladies’s basketball athlete is a pivotal moment for us as we lead in championing ladies’s sports actions and building higher access to and representation in the game that we all adore,” Parker acknowledged.
Adidas acknowledged Smith will symbolize the stamp on the court at some level of all her video games with Ontario Christian Excessive Faculty, apart from her AAU team. She represents no doubt one of Adidas’ youngest athletes. The logo signed its youngest fresh athlete, 15-year-extinct soccer wide title Chloe Ricketts, in March.
“I am blessed to be fraction of one thing Candace is creating, and to safe to fabricate that with a stamp adore Adidas who’s taking a special ability to play a job to support develop the game for gamers adore me,” Smith acknowledged.
The 5-foot-6 level guard was once the MaxPreps Nationwide Freshman of the Year, averaging 34.9 aspects, 6.5 assists and 4.2 steals per sport.
Smith acknowledged she’s having a detect forward to wearing James Harden’s Adidas sneakers this season.
While Smith is the first woman’s excessive faculty athlete to checklist Adidas, the stamp has signed affords with a roster of ladies basketball gamers collectively with Chelsea Gray, Kahleah Copper, Aliyah Boston, Aaliyah Edwards, Nneka Ogwumike, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Layshia Clarendon, Sophie Cunningham, Erica Wheeler, Zia Cooke, Alysha Clark and Janiah Barker.
Adidas has been busy in the NIL house no longer too long ago.
The logo signed Miami quarterback Cam Ward closing month to a deal. In August, it equipped the signing of six Texas Tech athletes as fraction of Patrick Mahomes’ NIL initiative with Adidas. The logo additionally signed 15 female pupil-athletes to NIL affords in July 2022 to own a great time the fiftieth Anniversary of Title IX.