Just months after winning a big legal victory in China against a company accused of ripping off his name002 Archiveslogo, Michael Jordan's iconic sneaker brand has signed its first Chinese basketball star.
His name: Guo Ailun.
Your probable reaction: Who?
We'll explain.
SEE ALSO: Schea Cotton, the NBA All-Star who wasn't, is finally ready to tell his storyJordan Brand is paying Guo $1.4 million per year to endorse its gear, according to The Vertical's Nick DePaula.
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Make no mistake: The world's most revered sneaker brand signing its first star from China is a big business deal. Basketball is wildly popular in China, which has a population of more than 1.3 billion.
Sneaker brands regularly send their biggest stars there for publicity tours during the off-season, but Jordan's signing of Guo represents a major step. Back in 2008, The New York Timesreported China was estimated to have 450 million basketball fans -- which is some 130 million more people than the entireU.S. population today.
So, yeah.
Jordan Brand celebrated adding Guo to its roster with a slick, 85-second ad called "Welcome to the Spotlight" that was posted to YouTube on Wednesday.
"You are the first," Jordan himself intones in the ad, which is embedded below. "Countless have dreamed of this. Represent them. Represent me. Represent yourself." (No pressure, kid.)
Before showing Guo's jersey, the ad smoothly highlights Jordan Brand's current stable of NBA talent, which includes big names like Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Jimmy Butler and Russell Westbrook.
That's heady company. So again, our initial question: Who is Guo Ailun?
Well, he's 23 years old, for starters. He's 6-foot-4 and he plays guard. He also plays with some flair, which is key to being an effective sneaker pitchman. Here are highlights of Guo in action at the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship -- he splits a pick and roll in the very first clip.
Although he has no buzz as an NBA prospect, Guo is also something of a prodigy. He's played professionally in the Chinese Basketball Association as well as for the Chinese national team since he was a teenager.
Way back in 2009, Guo attended the LeBron James Skills Academy camp in Ohio alongside some of the best American high school players. ESPN.com described him as "impressive with his ball-handling and ability to pass."
He's a bit of a bad boy, too, it seems. Last year, Guo was involved in a brawl with fans of an opposing team in the lobby of his pro team's hotel. Later he said he was just protecting his father, who had reportedly been confronted by fans of the opposing team.
"It could not be a problem however you cursed me or provoked me. As I chose this profession, what I should have done is to endure that kind of things," Guo reportedly wrote on his Weibo social media account after the fight. "But if my family was involved, I needed to protect them. This was an instinctive reaction for me as a son. I did not need to give it a second thought."
Feisty, flashy, and skilled. Yep, sounds like a sneaker pitchman, alright.
And China has a whole lot of basketball fans looking to buy shoes.
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