Michael Jordan may be Nike’s most popular endorser, but the first basketball player to rep Nike, Spencer Haywood, reveals his agent sold his stake in the company too early, resulting in him missing out on that same stock being worth $2.7 billion today.
On a recent episode of “All the Smoke,” Haywood stated that before Nike had a chance to rise to the behemoth of a company it is today, his representative, strapped for cash, convinced him to sell his shares, thinking the brand wouldn’t be worth that much in Nike’s early stages, way before there was an “Air Jordan.”
As is typical with new companies, especially in the 1970s, the founder of Nike, Phil Knight, asked the Seattle SuperSonics basketball player if he would wear the sneakers on the court. After Haywood agreed to, he stated that Knight offered him stocks instead of cash, as Nike was still a startup company.
“In 1972 and 1973, Nike came out with this shoe, and I said, ‘Yeah, I would wear it,’ because Phil Knight, we were all up in Portland and Seattle,” Haywood explained on the podcast. “So he came and said, “Will you wear my shoe?” I said, “Yeah, of course, we Northwest boys, We down.” And so he said, “Okay, I’m going to give you some stock in this company.” First of all, I was young, too. And I’m thinking, livestock?” What kind of stock? What Stock? What are you talking about?”
Haywood mentions that the person repping him convinced the SuperSonics player to sell his stake back to the company, as he doubted Nike would make substantial money, thinking it would not be very successful. Plus, the former NBA player stated that his rep was struggling at the time and was looking for an immediate payout.
“So I get the stock and my boy, that I let do the negotiation, he was struggling, you know have them bills taken care of. So he was like, convincing me that the shoe is never going to work because, look at what happened. Because when I was walking, running down the floor, guys would come behind me and pop my shoe off. So, they could step on your heel and step on a heel at night. It didn’t have the.. It was new. It was a running shoe.
“So I said, “Okay, man. I’ll give you the power of attorney. Let me just go play. I got to play. I got to focus on this game now because this is my chance. When I came back, he had sold that s**t. He said, ‘Man, I got the cash right here – $100,000.’”
“All the Smoke” host, former NBA player Matt Barnes, asked him how much the stock would be worth today.
Haywood responded, “It was up around $2.7 billion.”
Check it out below:
$100K Payout From Nike In 1973 Prevented Spencer Haywood From Having $2.7B Today