Today I Learned: The NBA Player Who Changed Basketball Sneaker Deals Forever

May 5, 2006. Game 6, Eastern Conference First Round. The Wizards were up 113-112 against the visiting Cavaliers. Fourteen seconds remaining in overtime. After spending most of the game high-fiving teammates from the bench, Damon Jones checked in. 14 seconds later, the Cavaliers had won, 114-113, and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the first time since 1993. Jones hit the game-winner. Those two points were his only stats that night, and the second of two field goals made for that entire six-game series, where he averaged a staggering 0.8 points.

Jones might not have been the hero LeBron and his Cavs deserved, but he was the hero they needed. And the hero’s choice of battle gear that night was Li-Ning’s Feijia (Flying Armor) basketball sneakers.

Several news outlets reported on Li-Ning signing Damon Jones in January 2006, not just because of the athlete involved, but more because of its novelty. Jones’ deal marked the first time any American NBA player had signed with a Chinese brand.

The courtship between brand and endorser began in 2005, when Jones’ agent Mark Termini first caught wind of Li-Ning’s intention to sign an NBA player to help the 15-year-old company establish a presence in the global sportswear market. 

With a career average of just over six points, three assists, and a hair under two rebounds prior to signing with Li-Ning, the University of Houston product wouldn’t be any brand’s first choice to build their future on. He wasn’t even a choice for any of the NBA teams coming out of college. Jones went undrafted and toiled in smaller pro leagues for two years before making the New Jersey Nets’ roster in 1999.

But Jones offered something unique: a friendship with former Miami Heat teammate Shaquille O’Neal, and being on the Cleveland Cavaliers with LeBron James entering the 2005-2006 season.

China had been the official manufacturing capital of the entire solar system for what feels like an eternity, but not even that was enough leverage for their homegrown sportswear brands to make a mark in the footwear and apparel market outside of China, or at home, as that realm was also dominated by foreign brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Chinese companies even failed to reel in  7’6” center Yao Ming, the first overall pick from 2000 who proved to be worth all the hype, so much so that Reebok made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Termini knew he and his client had just as much leverage as the brand, if not more so. So when initial conversations with Li-Ning began in 2005, the agent asked for nothing less than royal treatment for Jones, from flying in private jets to staying in only the best hotels, with the promise that, of course, the pro basketball player would be the perfect man to bring exposure and legitimacy to Li-Ning.

It wouldn’t take too long for Li-Ning to find out truly what they were getting themselves into.

Having been on the same team as former MVP Shaquille O’Neal and 2003 draft lottery pick and All-Star Dwyane Wade, Jones wasn’t new to media attention and scrutiny. But when you’re on the same team as a player dubbed “The Chosen One” and “The Next Michael Jordan” while still in high school, the talking heads are a little bit louder, and the lights are a little bit brighter. But, as the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. For a role player who had just signed a big check to be the face of an unknown brand, Damon Jones and Li-Ning definitely needed all of the attention.

And with that left baseline jumpshot in overtime of Game 6 against the Wizards, Damon Jones gave his Cavaliers the win, Li-Ning the spotlight, and Chinese companies the confidence to challenge the sportswear giants. 

Seeing how Li-Ning laid out the red carpet and brought out the sacks of cash for a player who would only average double-digit points once in a respectable but unspectacular 11-year career, Jones helped spark the slow but inevitable exodus of NBA talent out of legacy brands into smaller, grittier companies with a thing or two to prove.

And the first big moment for smaller sportswear players—which is surprisingly largely forgotten today— came by way of the biggest NBA personality, Shaquille O’Neal, joining Li-Ning in August 2006, just a few months after Jones’ game-winner in the playoffs.

Despite Shaq being one of the world’s most popular athletes, he didn’t exactly elevate Li-Ning’s brand reputation to a point where sneakerheads were camping out and lining up for Li-Ning sneakers. But O'Neal did prove to other NBA players that signing with a Chinese company was a viable, and even lucrative, business decision.

All-star Baron Davis would join the brand in 2008. Li-Ning would invest in young talent too, inking a deal with NCAA All-America first team selection and second overall pick Evan Turner in 2010. 

In 2012, that initial gamble Li-Ning took with a relatively obscure NBA player to get them a seat at the table would pay off in a significant way when Finals MVP, multiple-time All-NBA Team member, Team USA player, and perennial All-Star Dwyane Wade left Jordan Brand to follow in the footsteps of former teammates Jones and O’Neal. Wade would go on to sign a lifetime deal with Li-Ning in 2018.

But other homegrown companies from the Chinese mainland have also been staking their claim. 

Notable signings include 2004 MVP and 2008 Defensive Player of the Year Kevin Garnett leaving Adidas for Anta in 2010, followed by his teammate, erstwhile best buddy of Ray Allen’s, and four-time All-Star Rajon Rondo departing from his Nike deal to join KG. In 2013, Peak would acquire the services of Spurs legend, 2007 Finals MVP, and former husband to Eva Longoria, Tony Parker. Two years later, off his first championship with the Warriors, the other half of the Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson, would take his rising popularity, love for his dog Rocco, and otherworldly shooting abilities to Anta. 

Improved quality and design would put products from Chinese competitors on the same level as signature offerings from Nike and Adidas. Li-Ning’s Way of Wade line continues to be a favorite among both pro hoopers and casual weekend warriors. Even budget-friendly alternatives from brands like Rigorer, headlined by starting Lakers guard Austin Reaves, have made it to NBA courts, and even more community ballparks and 24/7 gyms. 

So when the relationship between Steph Curry and Under Armour soured and led to an eventual split, speculation as to where the first-ever unanimous MVP, four-time champion, and all-time leader in three-pointers made would sign ranged from the usual suspects Nike and Adidas, to sneaker players from China like Li-Ning and Anta, the latter coming off the heels of pilfering Kyrie Irving from Nike in 2023.

Curry would, as many already know, sign a 10-year deal with Li-Ning valued at over U.S. $400 million.

But before Curry even considered signing with Li-Ning, someone had to be the first one to turn down the prestige of being with brands almost everyone sees athletes and celebrities wearing. And another 6’3” guard known for shooting three-pointers became that pioneer, whether both Li-Ning and Damon Jones himself intended it or not. 

A quick internet search of Damon Jones these days wouldn’t immediately yield articles about his pioneering Li-Ning deal, or clips of him eliminating the Wizards in 2006 with a jumper, or any highlight reel, as he didn’t have too many highlights to begin with. Ever the gambling man, the player who bet on his talents despite all NBA teams rejecting him in the draft, the player who took the series-clinching shot instead of the teammate who people called The King, and the player who promised a fledgling Chinese brand that he’s worth their money is in the news these days for pleading guilty to an illegal gambling scheme that involved other former NBA players, and even known mobsters. 

But none of that can ever take away the truth that, all things considered, despite not being the hero Li-Ning and the entire Chinese sportswear industry deserved, Damon Jones still was the hero they needed at the time.

And when it counted the most, he saved the day. Ask LeBron; he knows.

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