“Does this affect the bottom line?” – Gilbert Arenas criticizes Nike’s recent decision on shoe deal with Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving and Nike parted ways earlier this month, and former NBA player Gilbert Arenas believes that Nike might regret their decision.
After making a post on social media, Irving’s political views interrupted his business on the court once again, leading to an eight-game suspension. As a result, Nike also removed him as an athlete and dropped the shoe contract.
Though Irving’s agent has explained the decision to move forward was mutual, most attribute Kyrie to being cut out by Nike.
Arenas believes that Nike should not have let Irving go.
Arenas takes the business side of things, explaining that if Nike is not at a loss on the business end of keeping Irving, then why remove him?
“If I’m in the boardroom and we’re talking about like numbers and logistics of it … does this affect the bottom line?" Arenas said. "If you hold onto Kyrie, where are you losing?”
The decision from Nike’s end does seem more political than it was a business decision. Nike is still a business, but being one of the biggest athletic companies in the world, they cannot risk getting political themselves.
Regardless, Arenas stayed on the take that Nike is a business and should have kept Irving to appeal to his customers.
The former Wizards star outlined that the demographic of Kyrie’s shoe sales is mostly kids who do not understand or give attention to the comments Kyrie made in a political scope. They just care about buying the shoes from their favorite player.
“Our opinion, the adult opinion of the situation, does not affect the kids, because the kids don’t know what’s going on,” Arenas said.
Gilbert used his own child as an example, as he wears the Kyrie shoes. Certain people will only wear shoes from their favorite players regardless of the political turmoil the star has themself in. They do not care, and just want to have the next newest shoe.
“When you think about Kyrie, 99.9% of his shoe sales are kids," Irving said. "So, his shoe sales would not be interrupted by anyone, because it’s the kids that buy it. Go to a shoe store right now with a kid, and he wants the Kyries shoe and that parent has to listen to him cry.”
Kyrie Irving’s removal from Nike
Nike removed Kyrie Irving from its company at the beginning of December. The company neglected to comment, but Kyrie’s agent reported it was a mutual decision.
Before the actual removal of Irving, Nike suspended the athlete for his post and said that his next shoe, the Kyrie 8, was not going to be released.
Irving posted something to social media that was dubbed by Nike and others as support to antisemitism and hate speech, which they could not condone.
After being released, Kyrie took to Twitter to post a GIF, presumably in response to the dissipation of his contract.
https://t.co/XwLDw6nhmS
Kyrie posted an explanation and apology for his role in the controversy on his social media. The Brooklyn star explained that his intent was never negative, nor was it to condone antisemitism or hate speech in any way.
Irving explained that he interpreted the message of what he shared differently that how he should have and did not mean to support what most read as the message.
Irving paid for supporting this post online with an eight-game suspension on top of his removal from Nike.
Many consider the separation to be mutual as there has been rumors in the past that Kyrie was unhappy in his contract.