Since the time he made his debut in 1984, Michael Jordan and Nike‘s names go hand in hand. Imagine if ‘His Airness’ went with his preference and signed with Adidas. Thanks to his mother, Deloris Jordan, and Nike executives Howard White and Sonny Vaccaro, he did not. 39 years down the line, he is bullying youngsters like Jalen Green for wearing anything but Nike! Talk about supremacy.
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Jordan made Nike $126 million in sales through his sneakers in the first year (1984-85). And the two never looked back. MJ’s relationship with White, Vaccaro, and Nike founder Phil Knight grew with time. And so did his personal merchandise line ‘Air Jordan’. It took Nike to heights that no other sporting goods brand would reach.
At 60 years of age, he still is their biggest marketer and moneymaker. And he has his ways of doing business.
“Take off those weak a** Adidas slides”: Michael Jordan to Jalen Green
In his recent appearance on the Podcast P with Paul George, Rockets’ guard Jalen Green, who is in contract with Adidas, revealed an adorable yet funny story about his first meeting with Michael Jordan at a Jordan camp in San Diego.
“You need to take them weak a** Adidas slides off”, Green revealed what MJ told him, whilst he was minding his own business. Green was stunned to see Jordan of all people telling him that.
And it didn’t stop there, Mike asked him to wear Jordan slides instead. MJ did give him a pair after Green asked for them as he didn’t have one.
Watch the 22-year-old reveal the story himself in the clip from the podcast.
There are multiple stars like Green who are contracted with Adidas such as Damian Lillard, James Harden, etc. Don’t be surprised if all of them have a story of MJ telling them to wear Jordans. He is relentless.
But there was another guy who suggested some players wear his shoes over Jordans and you might have already guessed who are we pointing to.
Kobe Bryant suggested NBA players wear Kobes over Jordans
We know DeMar DeRozan is a Kobe Bryant fan, so much so, that we barely see him wear anything apart from Kobe Bryant’s signature shoes even before he penned down a deal to do so.
However, before he was an official Nike athlete, the former Raptors All-Star dared to wear a pair of Jordans against The Black Mamba in a game. Bryant took exception to it and it went exactly the way it does when somebody used to poke MJ.
DeRozan also told that story in a recent Podcast P episode. And it is a riveting tale from start to finish.
If you were ever looking for somebody more competitive than Michael Jordan, it was Kobe and both shared the trait of making people wear what they wanted them to wear.
