【冷飯說】讓“Nike看走眼”的五位NBA巨星：耐克羞辱姚明艾弗森，成就銳步！倫納德手撕球衣耐克商標！

Jordan is a pioneer of Nike shoes Kobe is his successor while James continues the tradition if a player is chosen by Nike as an endorser This means that Nike saw in him qualities that ordinary players don't have However even though Nike has sharp judgment in selecting people there have still been many regrettable mistakes in their history In this video we take a look at the five NBA stars who made Nike overlook them The first one is Yao Ming Yao Ming signed a four-year contract with Nike as early as 1998 It is known that Yao Ming's salary for playing for the Sharks in Shanghai was only $20 000 So a Nike employee joked Yao Ming works full-time at Nike and part-time for the Sharks In 2002 Yao Ming entered the NBA as a rookie While gaining massive attention it also brought Nike a huge investment return In his rookie season Yao Ming averaged 13.5 points 8.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks His performance could only be described as average Although he was selected to the All-Rookie First Team as a rookie he didn't win the Rookie of the Year which disappointed Nike In 2003 after his old contract expired Nike wanted to offer Yao Ming a one-year $1.6 million contract extension averaging $400 000 per year while Yao's team's expected value was $5 million per year During the negotiation the unprofessional Nike representative bluntly said "Are you joking " The talks ended in an unpleasant manner At that time Nike was willing to offer LeBron who hadn't played an NBA game yet Offering a 7-year contract worth 91 million yuan yet giving Yao Ming already an NBA starter only a 4-year contract worth 1.6 million yuan this is nothing short of an insult At this moment Rypien took advantage of the situation Offering Yao Ming a 7-year 50 million yuan endorsement deal and also promising to produce a signed shoe and clothing line for Yao Ming with full sincerity Just as the two sides were about to sign the contract the Nike headquarters learned that the renewal talks had collapsed and was very angry condemning the negotiators as having no brains Nike does not want to give up the huge Chinese market behind Yao Ming They immediately offered Yao Ming a 7-year $120 million endorsement deal which is more than twice the amount of Rui Bu's However Yao Ming was not a player who only cared about money As the saying goes "He can be killed but not humiliated " He ultimately rejected Nike and chose to sign with Reebok Allen entered the NBA as the first overall pick in 1996 his rebellious personality and determined character directly influenced a generation of NBA players and fans At the time Allen often wore Jordan brand shoes during games so it was natural that he would not refuse a Nike contract however Allen was not given much attention or favor by Nike Nike and Reebok both made offers to Allen at the time but the contract amounts they offered were vastly different So Evans sought advice from his mentor Thompson at Georgetown Without hesitation Thompson told him to sign with Rypien Evens later revealed that the difference in the offers was so great that even tax returns were in different brackets and humiliated Evens vowed never to work with Nike again Steph signed a record-breaking 10.5 million dollar contract immediately Steph rose again In 2000 Iverson won the league MVP In the final showdown against OK Combo LEBU basketball shoes sales surged 53% Annual net income increased 22% Soon after Rip and Ewing signed a lifetime endorsement contract In 2014 Nike designed a basketball shoe from the 96 Golden Generation series Also wanted to ride on Avery's popularity again But Avery strongly opposed Nike using any of his elements In the end Nike had to abandon the plan In the 2012-13 season Curry led the Warriors to their first playoff appearance defeating the Western Conference third-place team the Kings 4-2 The second round once again made the Spurs break out in a cold sweat as they were on the verge of elimination At this point Curry had already transformed from a promising star to a top-tier superstar The off-season saw Curry's endorsement contract with Nike expire but Nike's attitude towards Curry was very cold They didn't want to boost shoe sales with a breakout playoff performance They have no plans to create a signature shoe for Curry They didn't even consider holding a Nike All- Star Camp for Curry instead putting all their resources into Irving and Wembanyama During the negotiations to extend Curry's contract Kevin Durant's name appeared in Nike's PowerPoint presentation Obviously they used Durant's PowerPoint as a template Just made a few changes and replaced it with Curry They didn't even bother to check it was a complete disaster In the end both sides left on bad terms At this point the American football apparel brand Under Armour The basketball market business is being vigorously expanded They first signed with the Warriors ' rookie Kent Bazemore Then they promoted the UA brand within the Warriors through Bazemore They then got in touch with Curry and offered him a four-million-dollar contract per year and also promised to design a signature shoe for him making him the company's top star Considering that Nike's contract is 2.5 million per year the bank would naturally not refuse Under Armour's offer but Curry still wants to give the sage one last chance So he took the Adidas offer and went back to Nike only to find that Nike remained as arrogant as ever and even threatened him Once you leave you can never come back Since the matter has already been discussed to this extent there's no need to continue talking so they turned back and signed a contract with Under Armour In 2016 the sales of Curry's signature shoes increased by 350% compared to the previous year and the total sales exceeded those of any other player in Nike's portfolio except Jordan Morgan Stanley analysts said the valuation of the Under Armour brand was 28.2 billion dollars and without Curry they might have been worth only 14 billion So this time Nike paid a heavy price for their arrogance It resulted in a $1.4 billion loss James Harden was the league's MVP and was once a Nike athlete In 2015 Adidas offered Harden a 13-year $200 million contract Luring three All-Star players to Adidas The Nike team considered it for ten days ultimately giving up on a price war with Adidas According to Forbes data This deal pushed Harden's endorsement earnings into the top five in the league in 2015 ranking behind only James Durant and Kobe Additional data shows In 2015 Nike and Jordan held a 93% share of the American basketball shoe market while Adidas had less than 3% So Adi was willing to spend a lot of money to lure Harden away After the contract Harden entered his peak period of his career Won the league MVP in the 17-18 season and also won the scoring title three times quickly rising to the ranks of the league's top superstars More importantly Because Harden joined the Rockets he gained countless fans in China Facing Harden who has such influence Nike could be said to have already made its move In 2017 the total sales of the US basketball shoe market declined by 20% but Adidas shoe sales increased by 40% against the trend Even surpassing Jordan's market share rising to second place When he joined the league in 2011 Leonard signed with Jordan Brand a subsidiary of Nike but his endorsement fee was less than $500 000 per year Leonard is a unique superstar Although he is quiet In 2018 Leonard who had a bitter dispute with the Mavericks over injury management negotiated a contract extension with Jordan Brand But Leonard was not satisfied with the four-year 20 million contract because at that time James and Durant had 20 million contracts with Nike per year Curry of Under Armour and Harden of Adidas each have 15 million Why is Leonard only worth 5 million Moreover Jordan just signed a ten-year contract with Westbrook I've only been here four years and I don't have any plans to create my own signature shoes yet Anthony Wade Westbrook and even Paul have signature shoes When Leonard was discouraged New Balance took the opportunity to sign him And Leonard became the biggest basketball star under New Balance since James Worthy in the 1980s In the following year Leonard joined the Raptors Led the team to end the Warriors' dynasty that aimed for three consecutive championships Leonard became the most successful player of the season Facing a confident and triumphant Leonard Nike once again paid the price for its short-sightedness In 2019 Leonard and Nike went to court over the ownership of the logo The court ruled that Leonard's Giant Hand trademark belongs to Nike New Balance may not use this logo on any product After the loss Leonard was so angry that he made a statement at a press conference He ripped off the Nike logo from his jersey That's all for today's "Cold Rice Talk" Friends don't forget to like subscribe and leave a comment "Cold Rice Talk " we'll continue next time