New on Sports Illustrated: First Overall Draft Pick Sabrina Ionescu Signs With Nike

First overall pick Sabrina Ionescu chose Nike over Under Armour and Puma.

Sabrina Ionescu, who earlier Friday night was taken with the first overall pick in the WNBA draft, announced she has signed a shoe deal with Nike. The deal is a multi-year agreement, according to ESPN's Nick DePaula.

Ionescu—who was a three-time first-team All-American selection and is the only player in college basketball history to finish with at least 2,000 career points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists—was also being pitched by competing brands Under Armour and Puma. Two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry, who has a signature shoe with Under Armour, was helping lead the recruiting efforts to try and convince Ionescu to join him.

"I have a great relationship with Steph and so that part's kind of hard," Ionescu previously told NBC Sports. "Because I've been Nike for 10 years. And then Puma's also kind of on the up-and-coming. So there's a lot of pros and cons to all of them. And so it's kind of been hard trying to figure out who I want to go with and what the best fit would be."

Ionescu wore Nike during her high school career, and later on at Oregon, where Nike co-founder Phil Knight is a major donor to the athletic department.

It's unclear whether or not Ionescu will get her own signature shoe, something that no current WNBA player has. Former players—such as Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper and Rebecca Lobo—have, per NBC Sports' Logan Murdock, and Ionescu is hoping to get the same opportunity.

"I think before this all happened, I never thought about it because I didn't think it was even a possibility because women don't usually have signature shoes," Ionescu said. "And then I think listening to a lot of these companies and the goals and visions that they had to have a signature shoe down the line, I was like, 'Oh, actually that would be pretty cool.' And I feel like a lot of individuals would want to buy that shoe and wear that shoe."

April 18, 2020 at 05:44AM
First Overall Draft Pick Sabrina Ionescu Signs With Nike