Sonny Vaccaro could’ve built an amazing, unmatchable portfolio had he added LeBron James alongside Michael Jordan to his list of clients.
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The former Nike executive dissociated with Nike 7 years after he helped them recruit Michael Jordan to their ranks. Vaccaro personally pushed Phil Knight to offer MJ a personalized sneaker line as well as royalties as part of his deal.
These were the 2 main selling points that drove His Airness to sign with Nike. Jordan reportedly preferred Adidas, having worn them through his high school career and in college while training.
Vaccaro was responsible for Adidas also snapping up Kobe Bryant during his 5th year of association with the brand. Further, he also recruited Tracy McGrady – another player out of high school – in 1998. His clientele already looks mightily impressive at this point.
However, to this day, the man indirectly responsible for the creation of the sneaker industry still regrets striking out on LeBron James – the one that got away from him.
Adidas hamstrung Sonny Vaccaro in his bid to sign LeBron James
Sonny Vaccaro was a guest with Dan Patrick on the latter’s show yesterday. The segment was a promo for the movie Air, scheduled to release on April 5th.
Vaccaro gave an insight into what went wrong when he approached LeBron James to sign an apparel deal with Adidas as their representative:
“The LeBron story is quite different to the Michael story. I knew LeBron’s family, including his mom and Maverick, when he was 10th-11th grade in High School. That one was someone when I made my break, it was like when I found Kobe for Adidas in ’96 or ’97.”
“But Adidas screwed up the way Adidas historically screws up, okay. They should’ve had Michael Jordan in 84, Michael would’ve gone with them for 50 cents more on the financial part of it.”
“I offered LeBron $100 million, $10 million a year while he was still in high school. We didn’t break any violations, I met him and his family and told him this is how it’s going to be.”
“I go to this meeting in Malibu, and they’re wining and dining him…We open up the contract, it wasn’t $100 million, they had incentives in there…They eventually said no.”
The partnership between King James and Nike has made history
After the aforementioned events transpired, Nike got their act together and topped Adidas’ deal on their end. They offered 18-year-old LeBron a 7-year, $90 million contract and his own shoe line.
Needless to say, the partnership has been a huge success for both parties. LeBrons are Nike’s second-highest-selling basketball sneakers after the Air Jordans.
James eventually signed for the swoosh with a lifetime contract worth $1 billion in 2016. He’s seen out 7 years since the announcement of that deal and has cemented his name in GOAT discussions.
