Michael Jordan Told Every Player Who Wore His Air Jordan Sneakers The Same Stern Message: ‘Don’t Embarrass My Shoes’

NBA icon Michael Jordan told every player who wore his Air Jordan sneakers the same stern message. 

“Don’t embarrass my shoes,” Jordan told SLAM in 1996. 

People tend to forget that Jordan wanted to sign with Adidas. However, Adidas couldn’t make a signature shoe for the Chicago Bulls star. 

Jordan’s agent, David Falk, set up a meeting with Nike. There was just one problem: Jordan had no interest in attending the meeting. 

That’s when Falk called Jordan’s parents. 

“My mother said you’re gonna go listen,” Jordan said in The Last Dance doc, which came out in 2020. “You may not like it, but you’re gonna go listen. … She made me get on that plane and go listen. I go into that meeting, not wanting to be there. Nike made this big pitch. My father said you gotta be a fool for not taking this deal. This is the best deal.”

Jordan’s signature shoe was called Air Jordan. Nike expected to sell $3 million worth of Air Jordans in four years.

In year one, they sold $126 million. 

“My game was my biggest endorsement,” Jordan said in The Last Dance doc. “What I did on the baseball court, my dedication to the game, led to all this other stuff. Believe me, if I was averaging two points, three rebounds, I wouldn’t have signed anything with anybody. So my game did all my talking.”

As of this year, Jordan has a net worth of around $3.5 billion. His salary during his NBA career totaled $90 million, but Jordan has earned nearly $2.4 billion from such corporate partners as Nike, Hanes and Gatorade.

Jordan is universally recognized as the greatest player in NBA history. He averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks with the Bulls and Washington Wizards and won five MVPs, one Defensive Player of the Year Award, six championships, six Finals MVPs, three steals titles and 10 scoring titles. 

A Hall of Famer, Jordan is first in NBA history in points per game, fourth in steals, fifth in field goals and second in player efficiency rating. He holds the NBA record for most points (63) scored in a postseason game. 

During the Jordan era, the Bulls went undefeated (6-0) in the NBA Finals and three-peated twice. Chicago defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics and Utah Jazz (twice). 

After The Last Dance came out, people saw that Jordan wasn’t a nice guy.

However, the UNC product didn’t care. 

“When people see this, they gonna say, ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you because you never won anything,” Jordan said in the doc. “I wanted to win, but I wanted them (his teammates) to win and be a part of that as well. Look, I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t wanna play that way, don’t play that way.”

Jordan got emotional while saying that last line. He cried and asked the camera crew for a “break.”