Can you imagine Nike without LeBron James?
The shoe-giant has been synonymous with the NBA star for over two decades but the billion dollar relationship almost never happened.
James is Nike‘s biggest American athlete and perhaps only behind Cristiano Ronaldo as the biggest star on their roster.
It was in 2015 that Nike signed the 40-year-old to a life-time deal in what was at the time the largest single-athlete guarantee in the company’s history.
Although, the relationship between the pair never nearly existed as James recently admitted that he was close to signing for Reebok ahead of his rookie NBA year.
Speaking on Travis and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer explained that the Nike rival offered a mouth-watering sum in an extremely lucrative deal that he ended up rejecting.
‘It was not always Nike. Nike when I was a young kid. Obviously, I’ve been in love with Michael Jordan my whole life,’ James said about his relationship with Nike. “As a kid, growing up, it was always Nike.”
“Once I got into the AAU program and started playing program, Adidas took us over,’ he continued. ‘It was Adidas from 7th, 8th grade to, pretty much, my junior, senior year. They just sponsored us every year. We played in all the Adidas tournaments.”
“And then, my senior year, the process began; the recruitments, the Nike’s came and the Adidas were still there, Rebook came in, and these companies came in and I took on three pitches – the Adidas pitch, I did a Rebook pitch, and a Nike pitch.”
“The best pitch that I got, where I thought I was gonna end up, was actually Rebook at one point.”
It was this point the four-time NBA champion revealed the lucrative sum that Reebok offered him that left him crying on his way home.
“I went to their meeting, sat down across from their CEO and the guys that was running basketball, the guy slides over a check to me at the end of the table and he says, ‘If you don’t go talk to any other companies, this is yours,” James told the Kelce brothers.
Nike have released 22 LeBron James signature shoes“And I looked at it,’ he continued before pausing. ‘Ten million f***ing dollars.”
“I was a high school senior man, I told them I need a break, they stepped out, My mom looked at it, and me and my mom were living in an apartment, section-A housing in Akron.
“My mom looked at me, she said, ‘Son, trust your gut. If they’re offering you this, then who knows what the other companies may offer you.”
The 21-time NBA All-Star took his mother’s advice and rejected the pitch initially, explaining he wanted to speak to other companies first.
“So they came back in, I said, ‘Thank you, I would definitely like to continue our conversation but I would be remised if I don’t take those other pitches. I may have cried on my way home,” James shared.
“It was like, ‘I could have bought the building that me and my mom was living in with that goddamn money.”
Trusting his gut worked out for the American, as he would sign a record-breaking $87 million rookie contract, Reebok reportedly later offered $115 million while Adidas offered just $60 million.
Nike have released over 22 signature shoes for the 40 year-old with the latest being the Nike LeBron 22, which first debuted in that infamous Team USA Olympic Gold medal run in Paris last summer.
James and Nike are literally locked in for life, with the four-time MVP signing a lifetime $1 billion contract with the shoe-giant in 2015.
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