Kia Has Lebron, Now the Global Ambassador at Infiniti Is Steph Curry

In the world of celebrity pitchmen, there’s a big leap between, oh, Jared Fogle at Subway, for example, and Andy Murray at Jaguar.

In the world of basketball’s best, there’s less of a gap between LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

Now combine the world of celebrity pitchmen with the world of NBA superstars. LeBron James quite famously falls under the Kia umbrella.

But what automaker wouldn’t want the best player on the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors? Steph Curry, Nissan’s premium division announced today, is the new global ambassador at Infiniti.

Steph Curry will first be featured in an ad campaign for the revamped 2018 Infiniti Q50 this summer.

Infiniti chose Steph Curry for obvious reasons. With LeBron already taken, is there any current NBA star that draws more positive attention than Curry? He was the NBA league MVP in 2015 and 2016, the best player on the winningest team in NBA history in the latter year, and the only player to ever win the MVP award unanimously. He is the most prodigious three-point shooter in history and succeeds despite an un-NBA-like physique.

Perhaps there’s some symmetry with Infiniti, then, or at least with what Nissan’s upmarket brand wants to be. Like Curry, Infiniti is also relatively young and relatively small.

But while Steph Curry is routinely breaking NBA records, Infiniti is simply breaking its own records. 2016 was the brand’s best global sales year ever; the best year for the brand in the United States, as well. At the current rate of growth — Infiniti sales are up 24 percent in the U.S. so far this year — 2017 will smash last year’s sales record thanks to a huge increase from the new Q60 coupe, the arrival of the Benz-based QX30, and meaningful growth from the QX70 and QX80.

Nevertheless, Infiniti is no Don Draper-voiced Mercedes-Benz, where U.S. sales are more than twice as strong. Indeed, Infiniti doesn’t have the prestige of Tom Brady’s Aston Martin.

So why did Steph Curry choose Infiniti? (Besides money, we mean.) According to Infiniti’s press release, “Infiniti is a brand that I’ve known and admired because of its strong heritage of performance, design and groundbreaking technologies,” Curry says. “I’m drawn to their brand values and passion for their craft and thrilled to be working with Infiniti to help tell stories of people who are driven to do more to realize their potential.”

How will Curry perform as a pitchman? He’s done plenty of this kind of work, for China’s Vivo phones and in partnership with Serena Williams for Chase as examples, in the past.