Michael Jordan became a global basketball phenomenon due to his ferocious competitiveness, supreme talents, and ability to win on the biggest stage of all. But he owes a lot to the one man who took a gamble on him and turned his name into a brand. That man? Famed Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro.
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The Godfather of Sports Marketing went through some incredible hurdles to convince His Airness to join Nike out of college. At the time, Nike was known mainly for track shoes, and Adidas and Converse dominated the basketball shoe industry.
Jordan himself was also an Adidas guy and was set on signing with them. Fortunately, his mother convinced him to take a meeting with Nike, where Vaccaro presented MJ with his own shoe line and bet the company’s entire basketball budget on him. Suffice it to say, it paid off.
So when Vaccaro recalled his triumph during a recent interview with GrowthX, you’d be surprised to find out that he never really cared that much for Jordan when he played in college. “I never met Michael Jordan in my life until I met him when he was introduced to me in 1984 at the Olympic games. I never met him. I knew who he was,” he stated to the show host.
Viccaro then admitted that what really soured him on Michael was the game-winning basket he hit in the 1982 National Championship game. Why? Because he was rooting for the opposing team.
“I remember Michael a long time ago when he was a freshman, making a basket to win the National Championship when he was 18 years old at North Carolina to beat Georgetown,” he recollected. “I was rooting for Georgetown. I didn’t give a damn about Michael Jordan or North Carolina.”
“The next three years, I still didn’t give a damn about Michael Jordan,” he added, before bringing up the now-famed meeting between Nike CEO Phil Knight about them going all-in on Jordan as the face of Nike basketball.
Funnily enough, Viccaro concluded that it was MJ’s game-winner that flashed into his brain when he decided to bet it all on Jordan. “To me, that basket was the biggest and most important basket in basketball,” he claimed.
That basket, which ultimately gave the Tar Heels a 63-62 victory over the Bulldogs, was the magical moment that got Jordan to sign with Nike, and according to Viccaro, changed the world.
“If Michael Jordan does not sign, please explain to your audience, Nike does not exist today,” he stated. “By that decision, Michael Jordan changed the world of marketing.”
And never has a statement been more true. Today, Nike is valued at $107 billion and is considered the pinnacle of sports apparel and footwear. Obviously, Jordan deserves some credit for bringing the company to those heights.
But just as much credit belongs to Viccaro. He saw something in MJ, even if it was out of spite, that altered sports business history forever. He calls it an accident. The truth is, it was always meant to be.
