Report: Nike cost itself Steph Curry with botched pitch in 2013
Nike is the biggest, most profitable, and most recognizable sneaker brand in the NBA (and the world), so one might wonder why reigning MVP Steph Curry, arguably the world's most popular basketball player, doesn't rep the swoosh.
As ESPN's Ethan Strauss details in an extensive report, the company has only itself to blame.
Curry was a Nike client for the first four years of his career, but when his contract expired in 2013, the brand apparently showed little urgency in its efforts to retain him.
Chris Strachan, a friend and former roommate of Curry's, told Strauss that Curry's disillusionment began when he wasn't given his own Nike-sponsored basketball camp, something Curry had wanted since attending Chris Paul's camps in his youth.
"That summer (2013), when it was really decision time, (Nike) were looking at Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis coming up," Strachan said. "They gave Kyrie a camp and they gave Anthony Davis a camp. They didn't give Steph a camp."
That oversight might not have mattered, though, if it wasn't followed by the debacle that was Nike's hastily prepared pitch to Curry.
From Strauss:
The pitch meeting, according to Steph's father Dell, who was present, kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as "Steph-on," the moniker, of course, of Steve Urkel's alter ego in Family Matters. "I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before," says Dell Curry. "I wasn't surprised. I was surprised that I didn't get a correction."
It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant's name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. "I stopped paying attention after that," Dell says. Though Dell resolved to "keep a poker face," throughout the entirety of the pitch, the decision to leave Nike was in the works.
A source suggested to Strauss that Nike's seeming indifference may have been the result of Curry's modest physical proportions, which don't necessarily fit the company's preferred image.
"Everything that makes him human and cuddly and an unlikely monster is anathema to Nike," the source said. "They like studs with tight haircuts and muscles."
Whatever the reason, Nike's devil-may-care approach allowed a hungry upstart in Under Armour to swoop in and steal Curry from under its nose. As Curry's incumbent sponsor, Strauss notes that Nike had the opportunity to match any offer for him that summer. The company reportedly declined to match a deal worth less than $4 million a year.
After his Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship last season, Under Armour extended Curry (for an undisclosed price) through 2024. His potential worth to the company is now valued by Business Insider at $14 billion.