Detroit Piston's guard Chauncey Billups and adidas announced today that they have reached a multi-year partnership agreement. After his sophomore season at the University of Colorado, Billups was drafted with the 3rd overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics.  While playing for four teams in his first five seasons, Billups has found a permanent home in Detroit, signing with the team as a free agent prior to the 2002-2003 season.

Throughout his seven-year career, Billups has always played the game with a passion and desire unmatched by any other.  That hard work finally paid off during the 2003-2004 season when Billups led the Pistons in assists (5.9 apg) and was the team’s second leading scorer (16.4 ppg) enroute to the 2004 NBA World Championship and the Final’s MVP award.

“Joining the adidas family is a major step in my career.  It is exciting to me and is very clear that adidas is truly committed to becoming the leading sports brand in the world, “stated Chauncey Billups.  “I really am looking forward to working with them and doing my part in keeping the momentum the brand currently has.” 

“After an outstanding summer of aggressively partnering with the future of the NBA, we are excited to be adding one of the league’s current superstars in Chauncey to our already outstanding group of athlete partnerships.  These partnerships continue to show our commitment to the US and global basketball category,” stated David Bond, Director of Global Basketball, adidas-Salomon AG.

Billups, along with Gilbert Arenas (Washington Wizards) and Sebastian Telfair (Portland Trail Blazers), will be the featured athletes for the December 17, 2004 launch of the GDL (Game Day Lightning) performance basketball footwear and advertising campaign.  The GDL will feature a fully integrated marketing campaign (television and print) and is currently being shot this week in Detroit.

adidas has been providing innovative products for the world’s best athletes for more than 50 years, from NBA legends such as Jerry West, Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to today’s superstars, such as Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.  This summer adidas launched the first adidas Kevin Garnett signature shoe and it quickly became the top selling sports shoe in the weeks following its launch.  adidas is also set to launch a revolutionary new laceless performance footwear system with the debut (Oct. 29, 2004) of the T-MAC 4 with HUG Systems.