When Stephen Curry entered the NBA, he signed with Nike. His godfather, Greg Brink, worked for Nike. In Davidson college he wore Nikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Curry’s contract with Nike was up for renewal<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Aug 2013 a meeting took place. Lead Nike negotiator Lynn Merritt was not present, indicating that the meeting was unimportant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Nike officer mispronounced Stephen as Steph-on. No one corrected or apologized<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worse, the presentation to Curry featured Kevin Durant’s name \u2013a careless job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaving Nike was now a consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Armour needed Curry. They used Kent Bazemore, a Golden Warrior State teammate & fellow North Carolina guy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bazemore barely played, but Under Armour lavished him by supplying lots of shoes & that got the players’ attention<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bazemore told Curry that he could talk to Under Armour & get him his own shoe. Curry was interested<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A meeting was set up. Curry asked ‘You guys are doing this stuff for Bazemore. What are you going to be doing for me?’ ” After the meeting, Curry texted Bazemore that he may sign with Under Armour<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Curry’s existing contract with Nike granted them matching rights even if Curry did want to leave<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Nike failed to match a $4 million\/year deal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Armour had Curry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now Under Armour’s\u00a0Stephen Curry signature shoe business is bigger than those of LeBron, Kobe etc. except Micheal Jordan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nike for all its marketing and business muscle did not identify Stephen Curry as a potential star. And they treated him shabbily<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,158],"tags":[509,512,513],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general","tag-nike","tag-stephen-curry","tag-under-armour"],"yoast_head":"\n