LeBron James always dreamed of playing in Nike shoes. Partly because his idol, Michael Jordan, made the brand famous, and partly because every kid wants to rep the iconic swoosh. His HS coach, Keith Dambrot, however, wasn’t aware of this and once chastised James for underperforming in front of Adidas exec Sonny Vaccaro. Dambrot expressed his frustrations while appearing on Brian Windhorst’s show with ESPN.
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James’ former head coach from Saint Vincent Saint Mary High School detailed what occurred back then. Dambrot took Bron to San Francisco to play in front of Vaccaro, who had left Nike & was with Adidas at that time.
Knowing what James could be in the future, his high school head coach wanted him to get the best exposure from a young age. However, Bron apparently had something different in mind.
“So, we’re playing at the University of San Francisco…And I don’t know if his shorts were too big or he didn’t feel like playing but he was messing with his shorts the whole time and really wasn’t playing very good.”
Frustrated with what his star player was doing in front of the Adidas executive, Dambrot took Bron out in the hallway. He gave him a piece of his mind while also reminding him what was at stake.
“I said, ‘Bron, do you know who that guy is?’ He said, ‘Yeah’. I said, ‘Well, you’re gonna cost yourself millions of Dollars if you quit messing around…So, he proceeded to do what he does.”
After a reality check from his coach, James ended up giving the crowd and Sonny a show in San Francisco.
Bron’s performance did impress Vaccaro. He drove the price up by offering a huge deal to The King. Knowing that Adidas would not be able to sign him, Sonny decided to raise the stakes, and the price for Nike to match.
And in the end, Nike had to fork up a ton of money to sign him.
However, it wasn’t just Adidas or Nike who were pursuing the kid from Akron. Even Reebok was in the ‘LeBron James sweepstakes.’ And despite offers following from Adidas and Nike later, James was quite close to signing a deal with Reebok back in 2003.
LeBron turned down a $100 million deal from Reebok
James was the biggest prospect that the league had ever seen. Already labeled as ‘The Chosen One’, James certainly lived up to the hype and has dominated the league since then.
As per BasketballNetwork, Reebok offered James a $100 million deal with a $10 million check upfront. However, the condition was that James could not listen to any other brand’s pitch. This was where the high schooler’s business acumen came in. He was always shrewd in his decisions, and the way he broke down Reebok’s offer just proved that further.
“I started thinking, like, ‘If this guy…If he’s willing to give me a $10 million check right now, what is it to say if Nike or Adidas isn’t willing to give me $20 or $30 [million] upfront.’ Or to say if maybe the upfront money isn’t the biggest thing. Maybe let’s start thinking about the backend.”
Instead of jumping at that offer, James decided to hear out offers from Adidas and Nike as well. In the end, Reebok even upped their offer to $115 million, but LBJ decided to go with Nike instead. The rest, as they say, is history.
