Michael Jordan changed the way sneaker game from a performance and a cultural standpoint when he decided to sign with Nike in 1984. Howard White, an executive at Nike, was a pivotal member of the core of the company that helped recruit Jordan to Nike and lured him and other superstars like Charles Barkley to them and away from other brands. MJ was their most profitable athlete and so when he decided to step away from the game of basketball, White and other executive believed their time at the top was done with.
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Michael initially had fallen in love with Adidas. Nike had an upstanding reputation of being used by track-and-field athletes as they specialized in running shoes. So, when Jordan’s agent, David Falk, set up a meeting with Nike, the UNC alum couldn’t help but feel a bit despondent that he needs to explore options other than Adidas.
However, it was Deloris and James Jordan who urged their son to take up the meeting with Nike. Once he did, he realized that he would be getting an unprecedented amount of money ($2.5 million over 5 years) and his own signature shoe.
Howard White felt as though the world had ended when Michael Jordan retired
Michael Jordan left the NBA while on top twice. The first time he did it, it was in the summer of 1993 after he had won his 3rd straight championship with the Chicago Bulls, best his fellow Nike athlete, Charles Barkley, in the ’93 NBA Finals.
Unfortunately, his father, James Jordan, would be tragically murdered that same summer. This led Michael to leave the NBA and pursue a career in baseball as a member of the Birmingham Barons. In doing so, he would effectively be away from promoting his signature Jordan on NBA hardwood.
When Howard White got wind of this, he felt as though the world had ended. In an interview with Nick DePaula, Nick asked him how he felt when Jordan retired the first time. White said:
“Yeah, a lot of uncertainty. I remember even feeling like the world was done. It’s over; it’s been a great run. ‘You know Michael, if nothing happens, it’s been a great run.’”
Howard White was a father figure to Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan
Howard White just a man who ran operations behind the scenes for Nike. He built solid interpersonal relationships with the signature athletes, especially Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. Chris Tucker, who plays White in the movie ‘Air’, even called up Chuck to ask him about White and how he was.
Barkley revealed in an episode of ‘The Steam Room’ that the Nike Vice President was a father figure of sorts and babysat the two of them quite often. He made sure they didn’t do anything stupid and then hilariously admitted to being ‘stupider than Michael’.
