Nike loses Curry to Under Armour over botched pitch—report

NBA MVP Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors greets the crowd during the Under Armour Road Show press conference held in Makati. Curry led the Golden State Warriors to their first NBA championship in 40 years.
INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

What’s in a name? Apparently, respect.

Back in 2013, NBA MVP Stephen Curry was still wearing Nike and the global sportsbrand had a chance to keep him in its roster of world famous athletes.

Nike, however, blundered their only shot at getting Curry’s signature after butchering his name and calling him “Stephon.”

As per ESPN.com’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss, Nike’s meeting with Stephen’s father Dell did not radiate enough respect for the future MVP and it had been the deal breaker.

Absent in the meeting was famed Nike power broker Lynn Merit, who is also LeBron James’ adviser, and instead Nico Harrison, a marketing director, had been there to preside the meeting.

“I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before,” Dell told ESPN.com. “I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised that I didn’t get a correction.”

Another error Nike made was its presentation for the pitch still had Kevin Durant’s name.

Not only did Nike make glaring mistakes, the brand also did not offer Stephen a basketball camp where he could teach kids.

Nike gave camps to Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, who eventually got a signature line.

Chris Strachan, Stephen’s friend and roommate, said kids camps meant a lot for the defending MVP as he attended the ones conducted by Chris Paul before.

“He was always at Chris Paul’s camps as a young guy, and he always looked up to Chris Paul. He took a lot of the stuff that CP does with film sessions and he implemented it,” Strachan told ESPN.com

It also helped that Riley, Stephen’s daughter, chose Under Armour over Nike and Adidas in some random test.

Riley, who at that time was just a little over a year old, was asked by Stephen to pick a shoe from the three presented at Jeff Austin’s, Stephen’s agent, house.

Strauss wrote Riley picked “shoe one,” the Nike one, and threw it over her shoulder.

She proceeded to do the same thing with shoe two then she picked up the third shoe, walked over and handed it to Stephen.

It was the Under Armour Anatomix Spawn.