Perhaps no other professional athlete in the United States sports landscape capitalized on and realized their hype more than LeBron James. Practically since the age of 14, James has had massive expectations placed on him, and he has come through on all of them by breaking records and earning countless accolades.
In addition to all of that, he has developed a transcendent brand name which has made him synonymous with Nike. But there was a moment where that partnership almost didn’t happen, something he revealed to Travis and Jason Kelce while appearing on the most recent episode of “New Heights“.
James mentions all of the brands that wanted to sign him: Nike, Adidas, Reebok, And 1 and more. Although James ended up going with Nike, it was Reebok that initially blew him away with their offer.
10 million f***ing dollars. I was a high school senior… 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’. She’s super composed, she’s like, ‘we ain’t got s**t already’… [I told Reebok] I would be remiss if I did not take those other pitches from the other companies. I may have cried on the way home.
Reebok offered LeBron James $10 million on the spot as a high school senior
James talked about being able to buy his entire apartment building he was living in with the money Reebok was offering him: $10 million. It was life-changing money, but his mother played it cool and felt as if he needed to keep his options open.
Thankfully, LeBron did keep an open mind. He ended up signing what was the richest rookie shoe deal ever at the time: a seven-year, $87 million contract with Nike. He then signed a lifetime deal with the company in 2015 worth a reported $1 billion.
Read the full article here
