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LeBron grew up loving everything Nike did,” said David Bond, then-vice president Balenciaga Triple S Femme of U.S. sports for Adidas. “It was easy for them to sign him. It was their game to lose.”About a month before sitting down with Nike Air Max 2017 Womens James, Reebok released Jay-Z’s first signature sneaker, the S. Carter. And by October 2003, the company had agreed to a licensing deal with Pharrell Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 34 Womens Williams and would drop his signature line of shoes, Ice Creams. Iverson, still in his prime, was the face of Reebok basketball, and the brand was Nike Air Presto Mujer anxiously planning for James, the soon-to-be rookie, to be the face of its future. “He was really engaged,” continued Krinsky, now the general manager of Reebok Performance. Nike Air Max 90 Womens “We felt pretty good.”What happened next has become the most lasting legend of James’ sneaker saga.Reebok chairman Nike Internationalist Femme and CEO Paul Fireman was a man of theatrics, with a win-at-any-cost mentality. In 1996, he signed Iverson, the top selection in Balenciaga Triple S Mujer the draft that year, although he’d played in Nike at Georgetown University and his college coach, John Thompson, served on Nike’s board Adidas ZX Flux Mujer of directors. Fireman wanted to secure another surefire No. 1 pick in James, and he was willing to pay more than anyone to do so. He escorted Nike Air Presto Donne James, his mother and Goodwin into a private room and whipped out a cashier’s check.

LeBron could leave with it, Fireman said. But there were two conditions: He had to sign with Reebok and give his word that he wouldn’t engage in conversations with Adidas or Nike.“I was lost for words … looking at a $10 million www.daviddenardi.fr check,” James said in 2017 during a conversation with Maverick Carter on UNINTERRUPTED’s Kneading Dough, an interview series Nike Air Max 2017 Mujer focusing on athletes and business.“I remember getting the check, then giving it to LeBron …,” said Goodwin. “He and his mom Nike Air Max 270 Womens looking at it, and his mom’s eyes watering up. … It was an emotional time … the reality of this thing that the two of them had lived their life and worked so hard for was actually happening.”Krinsky can’t forget the contrasting reactions of James and his best friend. “I remember Mav unbuttoning his shirt and getting some air, and I remember LeBron just being stoic,” Krinsky said. “He wasn’t fazed. … I looked at him and thought, he’s a man already. He knows everything that’s about to come to him, and he’s ready for it.”

The kid then indeed made a man’s decision. “LeBron understood that Nike Air Vapormax Mujer he had to give that check back to Paul Fireman,” said Goodwin. “Gloria did not. Gloria wanted to keep that check and walk Nike Air Max 270 Mujer out. But even with that being offered, we had to see what Adidas had to say, and then finally what Nike had to say.”“I looked at him Balenciaga Speed Trainer Femme and thought, he’s a man already. He knows everything that’s about to come to him and he’s ready for it.”The next meeting took James to Nike Air Max 90 Damen Malibu, California, where the brand he’d worn on the court for years had rented out a house in which to share its strategy. “I was hired by Adidas to sign LeBron,” said Bond, director of basketball at Nike for most of the 1990s. In 2001, he joined Adidas and partnered with Sonny Vaccaro, a longtime (and controversial) marketing executive. Vaccaro, who was fired by Nike in 1991, is credited with being instrumental in signing Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady to their first sneaker deals.