Markelle Fultz considered signing with Big Baller Brand

Markelle Fultz will soon be raking in millions from his new shoe deal with Nike.

The deal was announced late last week, but apparently we came really close to seeing the future NBA player sporting a different brand on his feet.

The Washington point guard and presumptive number one overall pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft reportedly told his trainer Keith Williams that he was “thinking about” inking a shoe deal with Lavar Ball’s Big Baller Brand.

Williams relayed the humorous exchange to the Washington Post’s Kent Babb. The conversation includes Fultz tossing around the idea of signing with 3B, with Williams playfully chiding him.

The Big Baller Brand has been a source of controversy and scorn for the Ball family ever since the brand began promoting the Lonzo Ball signature Z02 shoe, which commands a head-scratching price tag of nearly $500 (there’s a $200 sandal for good measure).

The patriarch Ball reportedly shopped the Big Baller Brand to a number of major shoe brands for a possible licensing partnership and, shockingly, no one took him up on that offer.

Until recently, the Big Baller Brand was a punchline among basketball fans and sneaker-heads but news that the future Sixers point guard almost hopped aboard S.S. Ball gives some justification to LaVar’s incessant howling.

Landing Fultz would’ve been a major coup for the startup shoe brand. Until Monday, the only player (not named Ball) that had declared interest in wearing a 3B shoe was former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Rashad McCants, who will be one of the big (?) names playing this summer in Ice Cube’s 3-on-3 league, aptly named BIG3.

Former football star Chad Johnson and Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett made their own purchases, but those would appear to be mostly for the novelty and won’t be on an NBA court any time soon.

But if Fultz would’ve turned his back on Nike, who is by all accounts the name in basketball shoes, LaVar Ball would look like a crazy genius and we would all be singing his praises. If Big Baller Brand could’ve landed the top two picks in the draft (assuming Lonzo goes number two), it would’ve added some legitimacy to LaVar Ball’s wild business dreams and crazy antics.

Unfortunately, a Fultz branded Big Baller Brand shoe was not meant to be.

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A smart, albeit boring business move, I guess.