Posted on Mon, May. 09, 2011

The Heat made a king, but only James and Wade reign in endorsements

BY ADAM H. BEASLEY [email protected]

The settled into its normal pre-game publicity ritual at AmericanAirlines Arena late last week. LeBron James and traded quips and laughs before a clutch of national reporters. Off to the side, Chris Bosh lounged on an exercise machine, waiting for his first interview of the day.

No one expected the Three Kings to share equally in the spoils this season. But even as a member of the most Fans cheer as Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James are celebrated alliance in a generation, Bosh is still introduced during a Miami Heat welcome party at waiting for entree into sports-marketing royalty. AmericanAirlines Arena. His biggest post-Heat endorsement deal appears to be a new Got Milk? spot and a role as spokesman for a Miami auto dealership once represented by Wade. An existing Nike deal has ramped up into a new television spot, but Bosh is still waiting for his big breakout when it comes to kingly financial status.

“I haven’t benefited yet,” said Bosh, a 27-year-old power forward who signed with Miami after spending seven years with the Raptors. “I just concentrate on playing basketball, and that will take care of everything else.”

James appears to be retaining his position at the of the NBA universe, even if backlash against his Cleveland exit hurt his popularity. Wade entered the Three Kings era a top NBA celebrity, but his power climbed a notch or two this season. The picked up an endorsement deal with Hublot watches and last week joined the short list of athletes with their names on a Nike shoe.

Sports marketing experts say Bosh, a soft-spoken Texan with a knack for viral video, has the potential to ride his Three Kings status to NBA superstardom. But a championship will be crucial for that leap.

“Bosh hasn’t maximized his off-court earning power,’’ said Shawn McBride, vice president of Ketchum Sports & Entertainment in New York. “He has the most upside to really leverage the national stage and the platform the NBA playoffs.”

A star in Nike ads, James sits near the top when it comes to leveraging basketball performance into off-court riches. He vies with as the best-compensated NBA player, according to , and his estimated $30 million take on endorsements last year was more than Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and received combined.

“The approach to the ‘The Decision’ really soured people to LeBron,’’ McBride said, referring to the live ESPN special James arranged to announce his defection from Cleveland. Add in the Heat’s disappointing 9-8 start this season, and James had to make up lost ground on the way to the playoffs. But his endorsement portfolio continued to grow.

Last month, James signed on as a spokesman for Audemars Piguet watches and became a partner at Fenway Sports Group, the Boston-based investment company that owns the Red Sox. The move made Fenway’s marketing arm his exclusive representative, and made James a minority stakeholder in Liverpool FC, an 119- year-old British soccer franchise valued at a half-billion dollars.

“I’ve got the No. 1-selling shoe in the market right now, and I’ve got the No. 1 selling-jersey,” James added. “As far as endorsements and marketing, we’ve all skyrocketed.”

Not really, according to public opinion trackers.

Shortly after James left for Miami, the Q Scores rating of celebrities declared him the sixth-most disliked athlete on the planet, just five spots behind Michael Vick. The Nielsen e-poll, which measures the popularity of celebrities, saw the drop-off continue well into this season.

In January 2010, when James was playing for the Cavaliers, he scored 260 on the Nielsen scale. In March, that had dropped to 131.

Wade’s numbers told a different story. When 2010 began, only James and Shaq earned more than Wade’s estimated $12 million in endorsements, according to Sports Illustrated. Still, Wade registered 56 on the Nielsen scale — a third of James’ wattage. Now he’s registering at 117, just below James but nearly double where he was before the Three Kings formed.

On Thursday, Nike unveiled Wade’s first line of shoes under the Air Jordan banner: the Fly Wade.

“It’s something I wanted my whole life,” Wade said, before adding with a smile: “Hopefully everyone will stop buying all of LeBron’s shoes and pick up a couple of mine.’’

He’s also driving some of the world’s priciest automobiles, including an Audi R8 Spider plucked from the Iron Man 2 movie set as a loaner birthday gift from the Collection, the Coral Gables dealership that signed him in November. The deal gives Wade his pick of the showroom.

“We just sent him an Aston Martin Rapide,’’ Collection President Ken Gorin said.

Wade signed on as Warren Henry Automotive’s spokesman shortly after signing with the Heat in 2003, but that deal ended in 2007 when Ford offered the NBA all-star an endorsement contract for Lincoln SUVs. Warren Henry signed Bosh in the fall.

“Things just worked out for both of us,’’ said owner Warren Henry Zinn.

As he gained fame in the NBA, the 6-foot-10 Bosh demonstrated a knack for winning fans. Online comedy skits portraying him as a hard-core parking meter enforcer went viral. In 2008, he posed as a used car dealer in a video campaign urging fans to vote him onto the NBA All-Star team. (“Filling out these ballots are easy as cow tipping, ain’t that right, Bubba?’’ Bosh said to a sidekick on the spot.) It worked and Bosh played alongside future teammates James and Wade.

“He was basically Top Dog in this city,” said Amin Toda, president of One Method Digital and Design, a Toronto creative firm that helped Bosh with video and online projects. “He went down there and said, Listen my career is basketball. All the other things I do are chump change compared to what these guys make just on their salaries. Let me go win something and let that be my legacy.’’’

Unlike James and Wade, Bosh needs a championship to become an A-list player in the endorsement game, said Ryan Steelberg, president of Brand Affinity.

“I’ll bet those negotations are going on right now,’’ he said. “Before he gets too expensive.’’ Brand Affinity Technologies measures publicity for celebrities, and its latest basketball ranking has Bosh in the No. 6 slot, behind (in order) James, Kobe Bryant, Wade, and .

Yet his endorsement footprint hasn’t expanded with his fame. Perhaps more telling, Bosh himself isn’t courting the kind of exposure he once generated in Canada. While he allowed a film crew to document his own decision- making on Miami last summer, that film hasn’t been released. His last posting was Nov. 21, and chrisbosh.com — once the online hub for his All-Star campaign — hasn’t been updated since he left Toronto.

“At one and time in my career, I was caught up in it, but it doesn’t matter now,’’ Bosh said after the James and Wade news conference had ended late last week.

“If it comes, it comes,’’ he said of a Three Kings windfall. “If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.’’

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