At last June's draft, former Duke standout Shane Battier took a back seat to the NBA's youth movement. High schoolers Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry were drafted ahead of the four-year star, who was coming off a player-of-the-year season and an NCAA Championship.

	Shane Battier wasn't sexy enough to be a top-five pick, but he's quickly proving himself on and off the court.

But less than a month into his rookie season, Battier is rising to the top of the rookie class, averaging 13 points per game for the Memphis Grizzlies and leading all rookies in the endorsement world. Battier has national deals with Casio, Oakley and EA Sports, and regional deals with Sprite and First Tennessee Bank.

"He's the only (rookie) that has anything that can be even described as a portfolio," said Battier's agent, Lon Babby, who also represents Grant Hill and Tim Duncan.

Primarily, companies feel America knows Battier, unlike the three high schoolers selected before him.

"It's something I'm very proud of," said Battier. "It's taken a lot of hard work and patience to get to a point where my name and face are recognizable, and now I'm in a position to leverage that."

Being featured on national television over a four-year period while at Duke certainly gave him a distinct advantage.

"Not many advertisers will recognize the faces of any of the high school players," said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports, a sports advertising consulting firm. "With Shane, they've seen him in the national spotlight for the past four years."

And with an NCAA-record 131 victories and a national title in his four-year collegiate career, his reputation as a winner is unmatched.

"From being on Duke's winning teams over the years, Shane not only got better as a basketball player, but he became a great brand," said Peter Land, general manager of Edelman Sports & Entertainment.

As one of the most recognizable college basketball stars in America, Battier was an easy choice for EA Sports, according to Rich Seidlitz, the company's marketing manager. Battier will appear on the cover of EA's March Madness 2002 game, which will debut in January.

Casio, apparently looking for a mix of brains and brawn to endorse its new PDA (personal digital assistant), found the perfect candidate in Battier. The ads for the Cassiopeia debuted a couple of weeks ago, with Battier appearing with the product wearing both a basketball jersey and a preppy, collegiate outfit. The ad includes Battier's grade-point average at Duke -- 3.6.

"I've always considered myself more than a basketball player," Battier said. "Looking at my success off the court is a true angle advertisers can go after, and you can't say that about a lot of professional athletes."

As for Oakley, which is launching its first basketball shoe in June, company executives felt there was no need to devote resources to recruit the next star of the future when Battier was already there.

"While other companies were spending money on the next 18-year-old out of high school, in hopes of future accomplishments, we have someone who's already accomplished things," said Mark Georgeson of Oakley basketball.

	Oakley plans to release its first basketball shoe in June, but Shane Battier is wearing it now.

For Battier, getting the right attention was one of the reasons he was attracted to Oakley.

"Oakley presented me with a great opportunity -- to start something from scratch," Battier said. "When I signed with them, I knew that they would put everything in my best interest, and I would have creative and marketing interest in the shoe's development. I wouldn't just be signing my name and face away for a few dollars."

Case in point: When Battier was getting his feet molded at Oakley, he wasn't a 14½ and he wasn't quite a 15, either. So Oakley designed personally tailored shoes, which Battier is already wearing -- size 14¾.

Playing in Memphis, he benefits by being in a state that has only three major sports teams. He competes only with players from the Titans and Predators, and perhaps former University of Tennessee stars such as Peyton Manning, for the local sports endorsement dollar. Battier admits that his playing location has certainly been a factor in obtaining regional deals.

"I guess I lucked out from the fact that there are very few professional teams in the mid-South," Battier said.

Although Battier's team is struggling -- the Grizzlies were 1-8 entering Wednesday's game at Cleveland -- he is playing legitimate minutes. And that makes the companies that have invested in him confidence that their man will continue to receive exposure. Before Wednesday, Battier was averaging 13 points in 38.8 minutes, including 50 points combined in his two most recent games. Meanwhile Brown, Chandler and Curry were averaging 4.1 points in 14.6 minutes.

"If a company wants an NBA player, someone who is fresh, will score a lot of points, get a lot of playing time and is very low risk in that you know he won't embarrass you off the court, Shane's a good pick," Land said. "Over time a lot of losing will hurt him, but right now he's still a champion and a leader."

Said Battier: "I'm in it for the long haul. I'll continue to improve, and I'm confident that the formula of good fundamentals and hard work that has allowed me to represent a variety of companies will also allow me to find success on the court in the future."

Darren Rovell covers sports business for ESPN.com. He can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.