Michael Jordan was one of five children born to James and Deloris Jordan on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. His life changed when his family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Inspired by his father, James, a maintenance worker who grew to be a supervisor at General Electric, his love for basketball was born.
Early childhood
Basketball was strongly inspired by a backyard court and his older brother, Larry Johnson’s competitive spirit. It helped him get better but he still missed out on the Laney High School varsity basketball team as a sophomore, at 15.
Jordan had always noted that this was what improved his go-getter spirit to never relent.
He gained admission to the University of North Carolina (UNC), winning rookie of the year and averaging 13 point in his first year, before improving the number to 19 in his second year. His leaving UNC in the third year to declare for National Basketball Association’s annual draft, got him a chance to play for Chicago Bulls. He was selected as 3rd overall in the first round.
Brands
At this time, Nike was not doing so well in terms of sales. Nike reported its first quarterly loss in February 1984. This was after the sports firm grew its revenue grew to $867 million by the end of 1983, from $28.7 million. The most dominant footwear in the NBA was Converse and Adidas, unfortunately, none of them really fought to get him signed. Young Jordan’s dream was to get to play basketball with Adidas until Nike came with a deal he couldn’t resist. Nike wanted a partnership with Jordan after he led the United States to a basketball gold medal in 1984.
Naturally, Nike wasn’t the first pick in basketball because it had distinguished itself as a go-to brand for track athletes, however, placing hope in Jordan was going to be the beginning of a big endorsement deal in the history of world partnerships. With Adidas not making any moves while Converse still having Magic, Bird, Dr. J and Mark Aguirre, the motivation to sign Jordan was not just there.
The credit for the deal was due to Jordan’s agent, David Falk who put a call to Jordan’s parents and got him to Beaverton, Oregon to meet with Nike officials including designer, Peter Moore, Howard White and Sonny Vaccaro. This was where negotiations began. Jordan highlighted his preference for Adidas which was due to the fact that they were closer to the ground and Moore agreed to suit it to the player’s preferences.
The deal
Jordan was offered $500,000 a year in cash for five years with stock options. The goal was to get Jordan to earn $7 million over those five years, as long as the contract stood. A clause was then included in the deal that if he didn’t get any of these three things- win Rookie of the Year, become an All-Star or average 20 points per game in his first three years, the deal may end two years early. The expectation was to get Jordan to sell at least $4m worth of shoes in his third year. The name Air Jordan was formed and it was given a black and red design.
This black and red design was against NBA rules of the lack of uniform colour scheme. In essence, the shoes worn by basketballers were meant to be white and uniform.
NBA banned the shoes made by Nike while Nike turned that event into a commercial.
“On October 15th, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe,” the voice in the commercial said. “On October 18th, the NBA threw them out of the game. Fortunately, the NBA can’t keep you from wearing them.”
At the time, the Air Jordan was sold at $65 per pair when it went nationwide in March 1985. By May, Nike had sold $70 million worth. At the end of the year, more than $100m in revenue was made.
To date, Jordan is unsure what would have happened to his career if it were not for the Nike partnership.
“Would the brand have been as strong if it was adidas?” Jordan was asked. “We’ll never know,” the basketball hall of famer was quoted to have said.
In 1997, he was ranked the world’s highest-paid athlete, with a $30 million contract—the largest one-year salary in sports history—and approximately $40 million a year in endorsement fees.
Forbes reports that the sports star has earned $1.3 billion since the deal in 1984 and has become a revenue-generating brand ever since that move. Forbes also reported that he earned an estimated $130 million from Nike in 2020, four times as much as LeBron James, who has the biggest shoe deal among active NBA players.
Converse used to be the dominant force on the court in ‘80s, Nike now possess 86% market share of the performance basketball market as of 2020. Over 70% of NBA players wore either Nike or Jordan shoes during ‘19/20 season. In 2020, Nike earned $40 billion in revenue. This was 60% more than Adidas in the same period. Jordan’s influence was also felt in ad slogans like “It’s Gotta Be The Shoes” and “Be Like Mike.”
The magazine reports that Jordan’s 2.1bn network was inspired and supported by Nike’s endorsement deals which grew hus wealth.
The NBA lists his accomplishments as Rookie of the Year; Five-time NBA MVP; Six-time NBA champion; Six-time NBA Finals MVP; Ten-time All-NBA First Team; Nine time NBA All-Defensive First Team; Defensive Player of the Year; 14-time NBA All-Star; Three-time NBA All-Star MVP; 50th Anniversary All-Time Team; Ten scoring titles — an NBA record and seven consecutive matching Wilt Chamberlain; Retired with the NBA’s highest scoring average of 30.1ppg; Hall of Fame inductee.
Legendary basketball player, Magic Johnson said, “There’s Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us.”
