You'd be hard-pressed to find another professional athlete who has experienced a more high-profile rise-and-fall over the last decade than Derrick Rose. The former No. 1 overall pick went from being the youngest MVP in NBA history—who led his hometown team, the Bulls, to the Conference Finals at the age of just 22— to becoming a reserve for the Cavaliers who occasionally skips out on his team midseason without much explanation. The main culprit behind this transformation for the worse was a string of injuries that hampered Rose's ability to stay on the court. But according to a pretty shocking new Sports Illustrated report, Rose's fall from grace hasn't hurt his pocketbook much, as it appears as though he has continued to rake in a ridiculous amount of money from Adidas despite his lack of production in recent seasons.
To say Adidas has not made its money back on the initial investment they made in Rose would be an understatement, to say the least. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated broke down Rose's contract with the brand, and based on the numbers contained in it, it appears as though Adidas has given Rose and those around him quite a bit of money for very little return.
Rose officially put his signature on a renegotiated deal with Adidas in February 2012 at NBA All-Star Weekend. The contract was reportedly the most lucrative endorsement deal in the history of athletics, with a price tag in the range of $185 million over 14 years. SI managed to acquire the 40-page deal, and there are some pretty shocking figures contained within it. It notes Rose was scheduled to collect about $12 million per season between 2012 and 2017 while also taking in more than $6 million per year in royalties and almost $5 million in appearance fees. His brother Derrick was also set to make more than $250,000 every year, and even Rose's best friend Randall Hampton was slated to collect more than $50,000 for "consulting" work. Here's an excerpt from Wertheim's piece:
The deal called for annual retainers of $12 million per season from 2012–13 until ’16–17. (This season, he is entitled to $11 million.) It also included annual royalties of up to $6.25 million per year, as much as $4.8 million in annual appearance fees and use of a private plane. (For comparison, SI has learned that John Wall's new Adidas deal calls for him to be a paid a base salary of $4 million). Reggie Rose, Derrick’s older brother, is paid between $250,000 and $300,000 annually as a consultant. Randall Hampton, Rose’s best friend since sixth grade and his assistant, is paid between $50,000 and $75,000 annually for “consulting” services. Adidas also pledged to contribute $150,000 annually to the AAU team of Rose’s choice.
While Adidas thought ahead and included clauses calling for "reductions and pro-rations" in the contract if injuries became a problem, Rose is still likely going to get paid in full due to what sounds an awful lot like a loophole in his contract:
"In this case, if Rose fails to make the All-Star team (as he has every year since 2012) or misses more than half the 82 regular-season games (as he did in ’12–13 and ’13–14 and is on pace to do this season), he can be docked pay. But unlike most contracts, Rose’s has clauses nullifying said deductions if he makes various promotional appearances."
Adidas reportedly could've gotten out of the deal in 2015 when Rose was accused of rape by an ex-girlfriend. Even though Rose was eventually cleared by a jury of any wrongdoing, Adidas had the opportunity to argue that he violated the morals clause in his contract. But for whatever reason, the company chose not to do so.
This seemed to perplex a couple of high-ranking industry people questioned by SI, who wondered why one of the major shoe companies (who are apparently "rigorous enforcers" of endorsement deals) hadn't tried to get out of their super expensive contract with Rose.
This report comes less than two months after Rose said that his contract with Adidas wouldn't influence his decision to retire or not. "Man, I don’t care about [that]," he said back in December. "Not to be rude, [but] I don’t care about no fucking money."
Check Wertheim's full report over at Sports Illustrated.
