MikeyWilliams

Mikey Williams became the first American high school basketball player to sign a sneaker deal with a global footwear company. His multi-year deal with Puma at the age of 17 puts him on the same product team as other basketball stars like Breanna Stewart, Skylar Diggins-Smith, LaMelo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Deandre Ayton. Williams has more than 5.5 million combined Instagram, TikTok and Twitter followers, which makes him one of the most marketable high school athletes in history. Experts agree the influence is real both on and off the court. On the court, he is a five-star combo guard in the 2023 class, according to the On3 Consensus. Fans line up outside and around the gym to see him play in a game. Off the court, he takes countless selfies and photographs before and after games. He said he has been asked to sign just about everything from a kid’s forehead to a cellphone case. With all this notoriety comes immense pressure. But Williams says he has a plan to handle it all. “Everyone has an opinion on my life,” Williams told Yahoo! Sports. “And everything you see on social media, I don’t let people see the behind-the-scenes stuff, and that’s how I want it to be.”