Damian Lillard joins Gatorade’s roster of top athletes including Zion Williamson, JJ Watt and Bryce Harper.
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The Portland Trail Blazers begin training camp this weekend, ending the shortest off-season in NBA history. Five-time all-star Damian Lillard will arrive with a new sponsorship in tow after Gatorade announced the watch as the latest addition to its athlete roster on Friday morning.
Lillard will be promoting Gatorades Bolt24, which was launched last year as a low-calorie drink for athletes around the clock. The sea salt and watermelon based drink is Gatorade’s first new product platform in 20 years and contains two flavors, Antioxidant and Energize.
30-year-old Lillard is well aware of Gatorade’s rich history, built on the back of another NBA guard, Michael Jordan, and still holding over 70% market share in the US. “It’s impressive to keep this relevance over time,” he says Forbes.
He wants to be the boost for Bolt24 that MJ was for Gatorade in the 1980s. “It’s new now, but there will come a time when Bolt24 will be a familiar thing. I saw it as an opportunity to be tied to this story, ”says Lillard.
The Weber graduate can afford to be selective with his advertising contracts. The final year of his current deal with Trail Blazers is valued at $ 31.6 million, and next season he launches a four-year contract valued at $ 176 million that is fully guaranteed. Its Adidas Signature sneaker line is among the company’s top NBA sellers, and its shoe deal is one of the richest in the game. Adidas released the Dame 7 this fall.
Gatorade announced its first Bolt24 endorser last month, aspiring golfer Matt Wolff, who was only the second golfer to partner with Gatorade after Tiger Woods. Wolff, Lillard, and the yet-to-be-announced third athlete will be featured in a digital and TV advertising campaign that kicks off this month. Zion Williamson, Jayson Tatum, Paul George and Karl Anthony-Towns are the current NBA players supporting the main Gatorade brand, while retired legends Jordan and Dwyane Wade and WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donna are also on the roster.
Lillard stepped up his off-court game last month with the launch of Visionary Academy, an annual internship program for half a dozen underserved students in high schools in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. He is funding the program, which is an extension of his shoe brand’s longstanding Adidas Legacy initiative. Lillard says he’s proud of his accomplishments over the past twelve years, including his college degree, a signature shoe and a bloated NBA resume with awards, but adds, “It wasn’t these things that got me; It was what I could do for other people when I was able to influence and put other people in a better position. “
Lillard averaged 30 points per game last season and became the second NBA player to join Wilt Chamberlain with three 60-point games in one season. He landed in the top eight of the MVP vote for the fourth year in a row. He’s after a bigger award this year. “We are always one of the best offensive teams. We missed out on the defensive, ”he says. “If we can solve these problems, we will have the opportunity to do what we signed up for and that means win a championship.”
Lillard is already a superstar on the pitch and aspires to be one off the pitch as rapper Dame DOLLA
Marcus Smith
While Lillard can’t guarantee a championship, his fans can look forward to the release of his fourth studio album “early” in 2021. His rap name Dame DOLLA stands for “Different On Levels the Lord Allows”. Lillard says, “The music is done, but I want to take more time so that it gets the right attention and the right eyes and ears.”
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