LeBron James‘ current Nike deal is now worth $1 billion after he was signed as a lifetime athlete. When he first signed the deal in 2003, he was offered a massive $87 million contract for 7 years, compared to Adidas’ $60 million offer. However, besides these two competitors, another company had offered James a whopping $115,000,000 contract. That company, if you might have not guessed, was Reebok.
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Back in the day, Reebok was trying to establish its footprint further into the world of basketball. They already had Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson as their star face. Investing into a rookie prospect, who had a much Jordan-like potential never seemed like a bad idea. However, LeBron James snubbed both Adidas and Reebok for Nike as he cared about his legacy. For him, Nike was the company he liked growing up, mostly because of their association with Jordan. And for James, Jordan was his idol.
Since then, LeBron has never looked back. For him, the Nike deal was one of the best decisions in his career. Now that a once flourishing Reebok’s glory has diminished, Nike’s influence and popularity are spread beyond the realms of basketball. In fact, Nike is perhaps the biggest sporting brand in the world, due to their genius campaign strategies with their signed athletes.
LeBron James snubbed Reebok and Adidas for Nike because of his love for Michael Jordan
Like every kid growing up in the 1990s, Michael Jordan was an idol and an inspiration. When Gatorade ran the commercial ‘Be Like Mike’, every kid aspired to be like Jordan. LeBron dreamt the same dream. He wanted to have a legacy and career similar to his idol, to be the greatest ever.
In the book LeBron James Inc.: The Making of a Billion Dollar Athlete, Brian Windhorst brilliantly noted the inspiration and reason behind LeBron’s Nike deal. An excerpt from the book should further clear the logic behind LeBron choosing Nike.
“Yes, LeBron picked Nike because he liked the company and thought it was cool. He picked them because it was what he saw Jordan wearing as a kid, and he wanted very much to be like his idol. He picked them because he believed they would put him in great commercials and design memorable campaigns. He picked them because he thought they could give him the best shoe designs. But he also picked them because, in that vital moment, he valued legacy over an all-out cash grab.”
Windhorst wrote in the book that LeBron had zero regrets for snubbing Reebok and Adidas. In a 2018 interview, he said, “Signing with Nike is the best business decision I have made.”
LeBron James made a wise choice of choosing Nike over Reebok
Even though the $115,000,000 was a hard choice to reject, it was rather a wise one for LeBron James. Reebok’s popularity and sales started subsiding gradually over the years and the company was eventually sold to Adidas. Furthermore, after the takeover, Reebok’s basketball division’s operations were also minimized. If LeBron would have chosen this deal, it would have hurt his business interest in a significant manner.
LeBron eventually went on to sign a lifetime contract with Nike in 2015, estimated worth $1 billion. He is one of the only athletes to sign a lifetime contract with the company, along with the likes of his idol Michael Jordan and current Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.
