Remember that story earlier this year about all the ways Nike screwed up their sales pitch to Steph Curry? Yeah, well apparently the folks at the swoosh remember it too.
During The Vertical’s free agency show early Friday morning, the show’s reporters were talking about Kevin Durant’s free agency from the Nike perspective. The main takeaway was that Nike didn’t care what market Durant plays in, so long as he wins. And that line of thinking actually led to Adrian Wojnarowski talking about the possibility of Durant signing with the Golden State Warriors, which turned into some great insight into the Nike-Under Armour beef.
Woj said that Nike wouldn’t mind and might actually like Durant being on the Warriors. Why, you ask? He said Nike would feel like Durant being there could take away some of the spotlight from Curry and therefore Under Armour, which is something they would love to do to get back at Curry for making Nike look bad in March.
Back in March, ESPN published a story detailing the 2013 courtship of Curry, and essentially how Nike screwed up its preexisting relationship with him. Curry eventually chose Under Armour, became a megastar, and has single-handedly helped catapult the Under Armour brand name to the top, not to mention made them a player in the basketball sneaker market (well, except for these jokes). Nike no doubt did not appreciate being laughed at in a highly-publicized feature, so they would like some revenge, whether it comes in Durant form or not.
