China's sportswear giant Li-Ning signs NBA's Damon Jones
10/1/2006 17:28
Chinese leading sportswear brand Li-Ning signed a two-year contract with
Cleveland Cavaliers' guard Damon Jones of the National Basketball Association,
the company announced in Beijing on Tuesday.
Li-Ning becomes the first
Chinese sportswear company to sign a current American player of the NBA. China's
brand Athletics signed former Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers legend
Clyder Drexler in 2005.
The agreement was inked on Monday at Cleveland, Ohio.
Details are not disclosed.
Jones, 29, is one of the leading outside shooters
in the NBA, averaging .432 from behind the arc last season with the Miami
Heats.
Starting in place of the injured Larry Hughes, Jones averaged 7.7
points this season, shooting .372 on 3-pointer.
Jones has worn the "Feijia"
sneakers provided by the Li Ning Sports Good Company this season.
"The
Li-Ning products, with oriental culture, make me unusual in the NBA court,"
Jones said through teleconference from Cleveland when the company held a news
conference in Beijing.
"They're an awesome company, and they've been great so
far," Jones said to Cleveland local newspaper before the signing of the
contract.
"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."
Xinhua News
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