Michael Jordan’s face was not shown in the new Ben Affleck-Matt Damon movie ‘Air’ and it didn’t seem to affect the story one bit with the performance Viola Davis gave as Deloris Jordan, MJ’s mother. Deloris knew exactly what her son was worth the second it became clear he was more than just the ‘run of the mill’ lottery pick. While she knew that he was deeply infatuated with Adidas, she made sure they heard every single option out there.
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Sonny Vaccaro, played by Matt Damon, made the bold choice of approaching the Jordans at their residence in North Carolina without setting a meeting with their agent, David Falk, beforehand. This was quite the unorthodox and unprofessional approach but Deloris and James gave Sonny time to pitch them.
When Sonny got a meeting with the Jordans to come to Portland, Oregon, they went all out. Peter Moore introduced the ‘Air Jordan 1s’ to the UNC alum and Michael was more than just intrigued. His mother on the other hand, was more focused on how much money he will be making.
Deloris Jordan made sure Michael Jordan got more than just a salary from Nike
Sonny Vaccaro had done everything right. He had forgone David Falk to build a personal connection with the Jordans, convinced Phil Knight to use all of the $250,000 budget on MJ, and made an incredible pitch to them when they flew over to Portland at the Nike office.
Despite this all, Deloris was not convinced that Nike was the right choice. She would call up Sonny personally and tell her that she wants her son to not only get the discussed upon salary but also get a percentage of the revenue generated from the sale of each shoe that has the ‘Jordan’ name on it.
This percentage came out to a whopping 25% according to the ‘Daily Telegraph’, meaning Michael Jordan was raking in an inordinate amount of passive income. Sonny reluctantly agreed and this unprecedented deal was the first of its kind. Along with getting a share of the revenue from shoe sales, Deloris made sure Michael got his red Mercedes 380SL.
Michael Jordan has made over a billion from Jordan shoe sales
Michael Jordan does not get 25% of shoe sales any longer. He’s currently signed on to getting 5% of any Jordan item that is sold and has made over $1.3 billion this way.
MJ also has direct input on who the Jordan Brand can sign as signature athletes and has built personal connections with them all.
