“Tell Nike You Want $1,000,000 And $2,000,000 in Stock Options”: How Michael Jordan Made Charles Barkley 10 Times More Money

Michael Jordan and Nike have a partnership that has benefited both parties by the billions. Charles Barkley also made a fortune as a result.

Nike was founded in the year 1964 under the name of Blue Ribbon Sports. It primarily manufactured running shoes for athletes – it was conceived for the 1960 Olympics gold medalist Otis Davis.

By the mid-1970s, the company had gained a real foothold in the sports shoe market. Phil Knight took the company public in December 1980. However, a lot more was to come in store for the company in the future, making it the biggest sportswear company in the world.

The rise of their brand to global recognition can be attributed to signing Michael Jordan. The movie Air, featuring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, goes into the details of how the two parties struck a deal.

Charles Barkley reveals how a piece of financial advice from Michael Jordan landed him a windfall

Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson recently hosted Ben Affleck for an interview on their podcast called The Steam Room. The trio discussed an array of topics related to the movie Air.

Both Ernie and Matt Damon implored Chuck to watch the movie, an opinion which he agreed with. Barkley also indulged us in this story of how MJ got in his ear and helped him make a ton of extra money:

“Why I’m excited to see the movie (is that) it’s my life. Because we both go to Nike, I’m in the same class – obviously they signed Michael and they signed me.”

“So I’m there when this s*** is happening, and I’m with Nike to this day. And Michael Jordan gave me some great advice to me one time.”

“We were playing golf in the summer one time, and I think I was making $3 million from Nike at the time. Michael’s always been a great businessman, he says ‘Hey man, why do you need all that money?'”

“He says ‘I was looking at your contract. You’re making about $3 million. Tell Nike you want $1,000,000 and you want the rest in stock options.'”

Chuck estimated the windfall that he encountered from this changed deal to be worth nearly $20 million:

“I actually made probably 10 times the amount of money because of this split. If I remember correctly, I got those options at $35, and they split at over $100 ten times since 1984-85.”

Barkley might have gotten a few facts wrong

If the incident Barkley mentioned in the podcast above took place during his playing days, there’s something amiss with it. Nike had a stock price ranging between 16 to 25 cents in 1984-85.

By the time it touched $35 for the first time in late 2013, he was no longer friends with Michael Jordan. However, the stock did touch 35 cents in 1987, by which point Jordans were mainstream and MJ had made tens of millions in royalties.

So it’s probable that Barkley simply misspoke during the interview.