“Magic Johnson chose Converse over Nike and missed out on $5.2 billion!”: HBO’s Winning Time casts the spotlight on how the Lakers legend missed out on a deal of a lifetime

Magic Johnson is recognized as one of basketball’s most successful entrepreneurs and even he regrets not taking this deal.

Missing out on a million dollars is something that almost every professional athlete goes through in the NBA, however, missing out on a billion? That is a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

Magic Johnson is one of the few players to have had an opportunity to join the league back in the 80s at a time when a lot of brands were emerging.

At the time a certain shoe brand was starting to envision itself as a big player in the game. That brand was Nike. They wanted to sign the best players in the league, however, their presence was not big.

Also read: “I would’ve never asked Larry Bird or Magic Johnson to join me!”: When Michael Jordan took a shot at LeBron James for forming a superteam with Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh in Miami

Magic Johnson missed out on 5.2 billion dollars!

As the story goes, Magic was offered 1 dollar for every shoe that Nike sold and 100,000 shares in stocks at 0.18$ per share. Converse on the other hand was a big brand and they offered Magic 100,000$ a year.

At the time the offer looked significantly better than the one Nike had put on the table.

Magic Johnson chose Converse over Nike and missed out on $5.2 billion

I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night #WinningTimeHBO pic.twitter.com/xG5pcugRxu

— Piñata Farms 🪅 (@pinatafarms) April 11, 2022

He has often spoken about missing out on this opportunity. This time this instance was portrayed on HBO’s drama series Winning Time.

Here’s Magic Johnson telling a story of how Phil Knight offered stock option instead of upfront money and how it was the biggest mistake of his career #WinningTime

(Via @BeanzGotGamez) pic.twitter.com/6fLNdLfAv1

— Piñata Farms 🪅 (@pinatafarms) April 11, 2022

Also read: “Magic Johnson should have been Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan”: When the rising Bulls star unknowingly drove a wedge between him and the Showtime Laker