Before there was the Nike Swoosh, Michael Jordan was all about the three stripes. How Jordan came to promote the Swoosh is subject for debate.
Former Jordan mentor Sonny Vaccaro said he and Jordan once attended a meeting with Adidas while Jordan was still with Nike, Complex.com reported, via USA Today Sports.
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Two of Nike's top executives, Rob Strasser -- who came up with the Air Jordan concept -- and Peter Moore, had beguan to work at Adidas in the late 1980s.
That prompted an Adidas meeting for Jordan and Vaccaro, according to Vaccaro, who was still employed by Nike at the time.
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Obviously, nothing ever came of the meeting. On the other hand, conflicting stories abound as to which person got Jordan hooked up with Nike in the first place.
Jordan credits then-Iowa coach George Raveling, who was an assistant coach for USA Basketball under Bobby Knight in 1984 for coaxing Jordan to meet with Nike.
"When I got a chance to play in the Olympics, I became very good friends with George Raveling," Jordan told USA Today Sports. "He's the one, in all honestly, that really persuaded me to look at Nike, because I wasn't ready to look at Nike."
Raveling said Vaccaro was the one who asked him to influence Jordan to pursue a meeting with Nike.
"So we went over and we met at Tony Roma's in Santa Monica and Sonny did most of the talking," Raveling said. "So when we came back, I asked Michael what'd he think. He said, 'I told you, I'm an Adidas guy.' ... But I suggested to Nike they should continue to pursue it and get him up for a visit."
Nike co-founder Phil Knight credited Strasser and Moore for their "Air Jordan" concept pitch to Jordan, relegating Vaccaro to a supporting role. Vaccaro, however, was adamant he was responsible for aligning Jordan with Nike in speaking with USA Today Sports.
"Phil Knight's lying, Michael's lying more than Phil and Raveling is insane,'' said Vaccaro, who went to work for Strasser and Moore at Adidas in 1991 after being fired by Nike. "All three of them need to destroy me to live happily ever after.
"Everyone's trying to rewrite history. It goes beyond Jordan. I am the savior of Nike.''
Moore sided with Vaccaro.
"The truth lies very close to Sonny,'' Moore told USA Today Sports in an email. "This whole episode is very typical of Nike history. You get a slightly different story from everyone you talk to.
"... Sonny was the second MVP in the deal. He picked Jordan out of all those kids that played basketball in college."
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