When Michael Jordan’s agent revealed Nike’s $3 million fail-safe if Bulls legend flopped
· Yahoo Sports
Nike took all measures in Michael Jordan failed to become a global basketball superstar.
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When the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan using the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, no one knew he would become a global sensation.
Evidently, when Jordan signed a groundbreaking deal with Nike that included a signature shoe and royalties, it shocked the NBA community to its core.
At the time, Nike wasn’t a gigantic corporation, and if trusting MJ had failed, it could have spelt trouble for the company. As a result, Nike tried to play it safe, as revealed by MJ’s agent, David Falk.
David Falk once revealed Nike’s escape clause for Michael Jordan
During a 2023 appearance on ‘The 20 & 20 Podcast,’ Falk revealed details about his conversation with Nike’s then-marketing head, Rob Strasser.
Falk revealed how Nike wanted to insert stat-based clauses in Jordan’s contract with the sneaker company.
“That makes no sense. You’re not an NBA team; what do you care what his statistics are? All you should care about is how many shoes he’s selling.
“He said, ‘I’ll give you a number. If in the end of the third year, as we head into the fourth year, if we haven’t sold $3 million worth of shoes, we want to be able to stop making the shoe.’ I said no problem,” Falk recalled.
He added, “We’ll honor the contract for the full five years, we’ll pay him every dollar he’s owed, but if he doesn’t make Rookie of the Year in his rookie year, or in the first three years, he doesn’t average 20 points a game ever, doesn’t ever make the All-Star team, we want to be able to stop making the shoe.”
That $3 million target was Nike’s fail-safe in case Jordan never became a superstar. However, Falk then revealed how the Chicago Bulls guard smashed Nike’s expectations.
“They thought selling 3 million will be like hitting a grand slam home run, and Michael sold 126 million in the first year. He sold roughly 40 percent probably of all Nike shoes,” Falk stated.
Today, the Jordan Brand is a massive money-making machine for Nike and reportedly generates over $7 billion in annual revenue.
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