On Monday, Gatorade signed its first college athlete -- Connecticut women's basketball star Paige Bueckers. The deal is the first time Gatorade signed someone for their name, image and likeness (NIL), which now allows college athletes to make a profit.
Bueckers will "join marketing and community activations focused on driving impact for women's basketball."
Gatorade tweeted a hype video of the star athlete, writing, "A point guard. A leader. A Bucket. And now, the newest member of the Gatorade Family. Welcome to the squad."
In the video, Bueckers is heard saying:
"I won National Gatorade Player of the Year in high school and that's when our relationship kind of started. And now to be an actual Gatorade athlete, it's surreal to me, it's amazing to me, it's such a blessing and I can't wait to get started."
A point guard. A leader. A Bucket 🪣 And now, the newest member of the Gatorade Family. Welcome to the squad @paigebueckers1 ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/of4C0uMAPc
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) November 29, 2021
The video ended with the words, "Welcome to the family, Paige."
On Sunday, Gatorade teased the signing by tweeting a lightning emoji representing their logo and a bucket emoji as well as "coming soon."
The 20-year-old is averaging 20.5 points, 6.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks. She helped the Huskies advance to the Final Four last season as a freshman, and her sophomore season is showing promising signs of living up to the high standard set at UConn under legendary coach Geno Auriemma.
Current Gatorade athletes include Serena Williams, Elena Delle Donne, Zion Williamson, Jayson Tatum and Trevor Lawrence.
This is Bueckers' second NIL contract, coming three weeks after a deal with sneaker marketplace StockX was announced.
