“Magic Johnson chose Converse over Nike and missed out on $5.2 billion!”: HBO’s Winning Time casts the spotlight on how the Lakers legend missed out on a deal of a lifetime

Magic Johnson is recognized as one of basketball’s most successful entrepreneurs and even he regrets not taking this deal.

Missing out on a million dollars is something that almost every professional athlete goes through in the NBA, however, missing out on a billion? That is a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

Magic Johnson is one of the few players to have had an opportunity to join the league back in the 80s at a time when a lot of brands were emerging.

At the time a certain shoe brand was starting to envision itself as a big player in the game. That brand was Nike. They wanted to sign the best players in the league, however, their presence was not big.

Also read: “I would’ve never asked Larry Bird or Magic Johnson to join me!”: When Michael Jordan took a shot at LeBron James for forming a superteam with Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh in Miami

Magic Johnson missed out on 5.2 billion dollars!

As the story goes, Magic was offered 1 dollar for every shoe that Nike sold and 100,000 shares in stocks at 0.18$ per share. Converse on the other hand was a big brand and they offered Magic 100,000$ a year.

At the time the offer looked significantly better than the one Nike had put on the table.

He has often spoken about missing out on this opportunity. This time this instance was portrayed on HBO’s drama series Winning Time.

Also read: “Magic Johnson should have been Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan”: When the rising Bulls star unknowingly drove a wedge between him and the Showtime Laker