Nike Lost Steph Curry Because They Didn't Know How To Pronounce His Name And Gave Him The Worst Presentation Ever
(ESPN) — In the 2013 offseason — coming off a year in which Curry had started 78 games and the Warriors had made the Western Conference semis — Nike owned the first opportunity to keep Curry. It was its privilege as the incumbent with an advantage that extended beyond vast resources. “I was with them for years,” Curry says. “It’s kind of a weird process being pitched by the company you’re already with. There was some familiar faces in there.”
The August meeting took place on the second floor of the Oakland Marriott, three levels below Golden State’s practice facility. Famed Nike power broker and LeBron James adviser Lynn Merritt was not present, a possible indication of the priority — or lack thereof — that Nike was placing on the meeting. Instead, Nico Harrison, a sports marketing director at the time, ran the meeting (Harrison, who has since been named Nike’s vice president of North America basketball operations, did not respond to multiple interview requests).
The pitch meeting, according to Steph’s father Dell, who was present, kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as “Steph-on,” the moniker, of course, of Steve Urkel’s alter ego in Family Matters. “I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before,” says Dell Curry. “I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised that I didn’t get a correction.”
It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant’s name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. “I stopped paying attention after that,” Dell says. Though Dell resolved to “keep a poker face,” throughout the entirety of the pitch, the decision to leave Nike was in the works.
Dell’s message for his son was succinct: “Don’t be afraid to try something new.” Steph Curry had thrived on proving people wrong for the entirety of his career. He had delighted in it, even. And Nike was giving him fuel.


If that’s so, that psychological damage was self inflicted. For all Under Armour did and for all Nike didn’t do, Nike still had an opportunity to salvage the situation when Curry indicated he wanted to sign elsewhere.
In 2013, Nike retained Curry’s matching rights, analogous to how NBA restricted free agency works. They still could have signed Curry, regardless of his preferences. According to a Sept. 16, 2015, report from ESPN’s Darren Rovell, “Nike failed to match a deal worth less than $4 million a year.”
Nike is, and probably always will be, king so this may not hurt exactly as bad as some of the worst business deals ever, but it’s gotta be close. It’s gotta feel like Roy Raymond selling Victoria’s Secret for a million dollars and having it be worth a billion a decade later, or like the Apple employees who turned down equity, or perhaps Donald Southerland taking $35,000 to film Animal House rather than taking 2% of gross for the film. Again, it’s not quite as bad as those things, but it can’t be too far off. You missed the chance to cash out on one of the greatest cultural phenomenons that exist today.
While Nike is still Nike, they don’t have the highest selling shoe worn by an active basketball player, Under Armour does. Steph Curry does. He sells more than Lebron, he sells more than Kevin Durant, he sells more than anyone who shoots a basketball professionally and isn’t named Michael Jordan. He’s worth 350 BILLION dollars to the Under Armour brand, and Nike missed out on that because they gave the guy a presentation that’s comparable to what you’d give, hungover, in a non-core college class.
They didn’t even pronounce the guy’s name correctly! Following a season in which he averaged 23 points and 7 assists per game, along with breaking the single season three point record, they couldn’t be bothered to learn/remember/know the man’s name. They didn’t have the concern to give his presentation new slides and just re-used the Durant ones, like you re-using a frat brother’s paper from the semester before.
The whole thing is one of the most fascinating things I’ve read recently. The biggest shoe company in the world lost the biggest basketball player in the world because they were too lazy and stubborn to want him. Nike may not ever really notice the lack of Steph in their bottom line, future projections don’t have Under Armour closing the gap in a hurry
But it has to just KILL them on the inside, knowing they pissed that away. It’s like your ex getting crazy hot, and crazy rich after you guys broke up: yeah, there’s no real way you could have seen it coming, and maybe it doesn’t even happen if you stayed together, but there’s always going to be that part of your brain that wonders if you tried a little harder then maybe you guys could have done some awesome things together.
PS – All those numbers the Currys do are especially crazy considering the facts that A) I’ve never seen someone wearing them with my own eyes and B) they’re ugly as hell.