“Michael Jordan is more interesting than LeBron James” – Colin Cowherd outlines unexplored attribute of 6x NBA champion
With the upcoming release of the movie "Air," there has been much talk of Michael Jordan's evolution from a young player to a billionaire Hall of Famer. In 1984, when he was deciding what brand to sign with, Converse and Adidas were both considered much larger companies than Nike.
Despite that, Jordan went with Nike, and the rest, as they say, is history. Ahead of the April 5 release of the movie that chronicles that decision, analyst Colin Cowherd weighed in on what makes Jordan the absolute superstar we know today.
The film, which stars Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro as he leads Nike's pursuit of the young athlete, has generated plenty of attention. During "The Herd with Colin Cowherd," the analyst said:
"Michael Jordan's more interesting than LeBron James. That 10-part documentary about Michael Jordan, fascinating, and I believe the reason is, athletes today they give too much of themselves. They've got brands. I know where they stand on vaccines and politics. I know their family, what they eat, where they travel, where they fly.
"I didn't with Michael Jordan. I didn't know much about his mom. I didn't know much about his father before he was killed. I didn't know that much about Michael Jordan. You don't have to show me what you're eating for lunch on Twitter; you really don't. Mystery is powerful."
"Air" tells the story of Nike and MJ's revolutionary partnership...
"Michael chose really wisely... He had a sense of who he was and what he needed to elevate him." — @ColinCowherd https://t.co/dMdKJHKUJ5
You can view his full thoughts in the clip above, beginning around 40 seconds into the video.
Nike's decision to go with Michael Jordan
As the movie "Air" showcases, Nike wasn't known for its basketball shoes at the time it took a leap of faith and signed Michael Jordan. In fact, Nike's signature shoes were made for track and field athletes.
Despite that, Nike famously made Jordan an offer he couldn't refuse. With a signature style that was uniquely his own, Jordan was everything Nike needed in an athlete as it looked to take the basketball market by storm.
With the budding young star poised to sign with Adidas, Nike answered with a five-year, $500,000 contract, something completely unheard of at the time. The big kicker, however, was that Nike vowed to give Jordan his own line, something no other company was offering him.
In 2020, Nike co-founder Phil Knight spoke about the impact of Jordan's brand during the "Extraordinary Tales in Extraordinary Times" podcast:
"He was huge. We had good scouting reports that he was going to be a great player, but nobody could imagine that he'd be as great as he was. We started right out making a special shoe, which had a lot of different colors in it, and there weren't any basketball shoes with all those colors in it.
"It was a stroke of luck, really, that David Stern, who was commissioner of the NBA at the time, banned the shoe because it had too many colors. You can't get better publicity than that. Every kid wanted the banned shoe. Thank you, David Stern."