Magic Johnson got here into the NBA in 1979 actual sizzling after beating Larry Chook within the nationwide championship, so he acquired loads of sneaker offers thrown at him – together with one from Nike.
Together with Nike, Adidas and Converse supplied Magic a sponsorship deal.
The Lakers legend determined to signal with Converse, which financially talking was positively not the most suitable choice however he didn’t have a crystal ball on the time.
“Nike was only a 12 months or two outdated,” Johnson mentioned on a January episode of All The Smoke. “And so, Converse supplied me essentially the most cash. So, you already know, whenever you develop up broke, you are taking the cash. [Nike co-founder] Phil Knight got here in and mentioned, ‘Hey, I can’t supply you an identical kind of cash, however I can give you inventory.’
“I didn’t know nothing about it. My household didn’t come from cash. See, that’s one factor that harm us generally. Whenever you don’t come from cash, I didn’t even know what shares was at the moment. So I handed on the shares. Are you able to think about? Forty-five years. 5 billion {dollars} that inventory would’ve been value as we speak.”
It’s exhausting to really feel too sorry for Magic, since he’s nonetheless estimated to be value round $620 million proper now – plenty of that because of Magic Johnson Enterprises.
The now-63-year-old owns eating places and leisure venues besides, the Nike stuff nonetheless haunts him.
Again in 2017 on The Ellen Present, he mentioned, “Boy, did I make a mistake… I’m nonetheless kicking myself. Each time I’m in a Nike Retailer, I get mad. I may have been creating wealth off of all people shopping for Nikes proper now.”
As most NBA followers know, Nike and Michael Jordan made a deal in 1984 that included his personal line of footwear known as Air Jordan.
It was a $2.5 million deal for 5 years, plus and a further 5 p.c royalties on the revenue from the sale of his signature line.
Since then, it’s estimated that Jordan has revamped $1.4 billion from his Nike deal and he made $256 million from Nike in 2022 alone. Wild.
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