The 2023 film Air gave the general public a very interesting behind-the-scenes look at shoe deals with corresponding sports stars.
Bypassing bigger brands at the time in Adidas and Converse, Michael Jordan — with the help of his mother — famous negotiated a deal with Nike to become the face of the company. Decades later, Air Jordan is one of the most iconic shoe brands to ever be created.
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Jordan continues to enjoy the financial windfall from that decision, and is worth reportedly close to four billion dollars.
Before Jordan made his decision, a young Magic Johnson was in a similar situation. A star at Michigan State, Johnson left after two years to pursue his professional dreams. Nike came calling for Johnson as he was getting ready to be drafted No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1979 NBA Draft.
However, Johnson spurned Nike in order to sign with Converse — a more visible brand at the time, and one that was more basketball-centric compared to the track-based Nike. The Los Angeles Lakers legend spoke on the Earn Your Leisure podcast recently and admitted that he made a major mistake in retrospect.
“Converse offered me the most money. And so, when you’re Black and you’re broke, you take the most money, right?” Johnson said. “So I decided to go with Converse. But Phil Knight came in and he said: ‘I can’t offer you the same amount of money as Converse, but I can give you something called stock.’ And I passed on the stock, not knowing anything about stock at 19 years old. You know how much that stock would be worth today, 46 years later? A billion-five.”
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Hindsight is always 20/20 — and though Johnson lost out on a good chunk of change, he’s still done quite well for himself off the court.
During his playing days, he would often shadow the late Dr. Jerry Buss, absorbing business advice and essentially learning information that would help Johnson become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of any professional athlete ever.
From movie theaters to owning restaurants, gyms, and real estate properties, to being the part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a host of other professional teams, it’s not surprising to hear that Johnson himself is reportedly worth an estimation of $1.5 billion.
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