How 18-year-old LeBron James turned down a $10 million sneaker signing bonus and set the course for a billion-dollar future.
For his part, Vaccaro had been preparing for this move for months and had spoken to the highest levels of the company to make sure everything was set for his pitch. Significant money had been invested in the weekend meeting. Adidas sent a private jet for LeBron and several of his friends on a Friday, just two days after he'd returned from Reebok. After the party landed, they provided courtside seats for a Lakers playoff game that night.
LeBron and his mom once again headed out to hear a pitch. Maverick Carter joined them, going back to Nike's campus. It was at the Mia Hamm Building, a sleek new structure with tinted green windows that was the largest on the campus. Certain staples went into these things: special lighting, videos, products artfully displayed. But this one was the grandest Nike had done.
As for the signing bonus, well, Nike had gotten word of the $10 million offer and they were prepared to do the same ... sort of. They were not planning to have to tell this to LeBron directly, but the offer was for a $5 million bonus when he signed and then an additional $5 million as part of his paycheck later, once the long-form version of the deal was assembled. And there was no check on the table ready to be endorsed and taken to the bank as there had been at Reebok.
On Monday morning, employees at Nike came back to work expecting to get news that LeBron had agreed to sign over the weekend. More than one hundred employees played a role in the presentation, and some were eager to hear that they would be celebrating a win. Instead, when they stopped by the John McEnroe Building, where the marketing executive offices were, they found out the truth. As the finance guys said,"The delta between us and Reebok is significant.
Yet Reebok's offer was tens of millions more. That money was there to make LeBron forget about his hesitations. Nike certainly could have afforded to match the Reebok offer; it would have made little difference in their bottom line. But they had to do many more endorsement deals with many other athletes. They had to factor in holding that line to a degree. But when LeBron imagined his future, he'd always seen himself in Nikes. He'd dreamed of being in Nike commercials.
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