Jeff Austin arrived in Memphis at noon the day after calling Link. He had come specifically to handle Link's sneaker contract.
After yesterday's call with Jeff Austin, Link had clearly been dumbfounded. After all, this had come out of nowhere. Free shoes and money on top of that—such a thing felt almost surreal to Link, who had been an ordinary person in his previous life.
In the NBA, sneaker contracts were practically standard issue. According to Jeff Austin's data, only about one out of every fifteen NBA players had no sneaker contract. So long as you were a reliable rotation player on a team, you could basically get one. The only question was whether the amount would be large or small.
Superstars like Kobe and James had their own signature shoe lines. Most NBA players, meanwhile, signed equipment deals. That was, the shoe company provided all the gear they needed for games and training, but offered no additional compensation. And that gear was all basic models—you couldn't pick anything too premium.
Therefore, not every player with a sneaker contract was raking in money.
Jeff Austin had long expected sneaker companies to take notice once Link officially signed, but he hadn't expected all three major brands to make offers at once.
It seemed Link's commercial value might be even greater than Jeff Austin had imagined.
Not wanting to interrupt Link's training, Jeff Austin went straight to FedExForum. He met Link in the arena's office area, then would soon have to leave to handle other matters elsewhere.
"Training pretty seriously, huh?" Jeff Austin smiled as he watched the sweat-soaked Link appear before him, seated on the sofa.
"Can't be helped. That two million isn't so easy to earn. Oh, right—more accurately, it's a little over 1.2 million." Link grinned and casually took