Michael Jordan is worth $2.1 billion, mostly thanks to his sneaker empire with Nike. Jordan Brand is its own entity and there are plenty of sneakers and apparel pieces in the Jumpman library. For the last 35 years, Jordan’s partnership with Nike has brought in billions of dollars worth of profit and it is easily the most lucrative basketball player sneaker deal in NBA history. 

While Jordan might be synonymous with Nike, he almost signed somewhere else. This fact is common knowledge for most sneakerheads but not everyone is hip to the fact that Jordan actually preferred Adidas growing up. During “The Last Dance” last night, MJ revealed that he almost didn’t even meet with Nike and that he was adamant about signing with the three stripes. Eventually, his mom convinced him to at least listen to Nike and it proved to be one of the best decisions he ever made.

Of course, this didn’t exactly work out for Adidas who lost out on billions of dollars due to Michael’s decision. Not to mention, Adidas didn’t have Air technology as Nike did, so the Air Jordan name would have never come to fruition. Sometimes, the universe works in mysterious ways.

Not to mention, Adidas has Yeezy now which is no slouch when it comes to generating profits.