After appreciation from LeBron James, viral volleyball player Natalia Newsome reveals dream of collaborating with multi-billion-dollar conglomerate

Natalia Newsome, who was under the spotlight for her impressive 40-inch vertical jump, opened up about her dream of collaborating with the multi-million-dollar sports brand Nike. The SMU volleyball middle blocker has received appreciation from LeBron James.

The Southern Methodist University athlete's 40-inch vertical is more than a foot above the rim of an NBA hoop. Her skills have even led to players like LeBron James, Sue Bird, and others singing praises of her on social media.

Amid this, Newsome did a Q&A session on Instagram, where one of her fans asked her about her dream brand deal. Replying to this, she named the billion-dollar brand, writing:

"Nike."

Photos and videos of her jump are making rounds all over the internet, as one of the posts by ESPN on Instagram caught the attention of the NBA legend, James, who dropped a comment with fire emojis:

"🐰🔥🔥🔥🔥"

Natalia Newsome opened up about her vertical jump

Shortly after making the 40-inch jump, Natalia Newsome sat for an interview with the media, where she made her feelings known about being a part of SMU. She revealed that she was convinced by the head coach, Sam Erger, to join the university and said that the latter wanted to make her a 'well-rounded' person.

Newsome further added that the coach's kind nature was one of the main reasons for her joining SMU.

“She’s very much about your full experience at SMU. You can see with a lot of coaches that they just want to focus on your volleyball experience and that’s important. But she wants to make you a well-rounded person.

"She cares about how you’re doing in school, how you’re doing in volleyball, how you’re doing just as a person in general. That was something I really loved about her and was kind of one of the reasons that made me commit to SMU," said Natalia Newsome.

Further mentioning her vertical jump, Newsome credited her genes, as her father was also an athlete.

"It wasn’t really something I focused on until I got to SMU. I guess you could say it was genetics."

Recently, fans on social media reacted to Natalia Newsome's jaw-dropping jump, urging 'Nike to give her a shoe.' The SMU player was also named the team's most valuable player in 2022.

About the author

An English Honors graduate, Nancy is a journalist at Sportskeeda covering US Olympic sports. She has a total experience of 4 years, having previously worked as a Marketing Executive for BYJU’S before finding her footing at SK.

To deliver the best content, Nancy keeps herself updated by reading as much as possible about the athletes and the sport, and believes that researching and trusting credible sources is the key to reporting ethical and accurate information.

Track and Field events particularly interest Nancy, and she is a fan of Allyson Felix. While she cherished each of her victories, her favorite Olympic moment happens to be the retired athlete’s 10th medal at the Games.

Nancy believes that covering the personal lives and training sessions of the Olympic athletes, and showcasing old podcasts or interviews would help bridge the coverage gap of the sport in its off season.

When away from her keyboard, Nancy spends most of her free time reading books. She also writes poems and plans on publishing a book.

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Edited by Hitesh Nigam