Chinese shoe company signs its first NBA star
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-11 09:19

BEIJING (AFP) - China's leading sportswear company Li Ning has signed a contract with Cleveland Cavalier guard Damon Jones, in the first sponsorship deal between a Chinese company and a NBA player.

The agreement was signed in Cleveland on Monday, but no details of the pact were made available, Xinhua news agency said.

"Li Ning products, with oriental culture, make me unusual on the NBA court," Jones was quoted as saying.

"It was a situation where I didn't have a shoe contract coming into the year, and I was searching around, and I felt that being different, as I am, I thought it would be a good move to market myself in a different light."

Jones is now likely to be a regular fixture in Chinese basketball advertisements.

Although Jones is the first NBA player to market a shoe for a Chinese company, former Houston Rocket and Portland Trailblazer legend Clyde Drexler was featured in an advertisement by the Chinese brand Athletics as a former NBA great.