Nike’s dividends exceed 900 million yuan a year, making Jordan easily among the richest people in the United States.
As the greatest star in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan is the person who truly introduced basketball to the world. His emergence not only made the NBA one of the most famous sports leagues in the world, but also transformed the "Nike" behind it from a small brand into a sports giant.
It can be seen from the 2019 Forbes Wealth Report that as a partner of "AJ", Jordan's dividend amount that year was US$130 million, equivalent to more than 900 million yuan. You know, from 2000 to 2012, Jordan received more than 500 million U.S. dollars through "AJ" brand dividends. By 2019, Nike's dividend payment to Jordan will not be less than 1 billion U.S. dollars. It is precisely because of the high returns from annual dividends that Jordan's net worth has already exceeded 2 billion US dollars, ranking among the top 100 richest people in the United States.
Signing of sky-high endorsement contracts
We all know that cooperation between athletes and sports brands is generally an endorsement contract, and the best result may be similar to that of a player like James. , can get a lifetime contract. So as one of the world's largest sports brands, why is Nike willing to hand over dividend rights? We have to go back to 1984, the days when Jordan signed a contract with Nike.
In 1984, Jordan joined the NBA as the third overall pick in the draft. Although he was not the number one pick, he was still very popular. As future star players, high draft rankings give Jordan and other players the opportunity to sign endorsement contracts. At that time, whether it was the NBA or other sports events, Converse and Adidas were the real mainstream brands in the market at that time, while Nike was just a small, unpopular brand. In order to sign Jordan, Nike signed a five-year, $2.5 million endorsement contract with Jordan in 1984. You must know that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s sneaker endorsement contract at that time was only 100,000 a year, and even the endorsement contracts of Bird and Johnson at the time It is far from reaching such a "sky-high price".
Mutual achievement, the advent of AJ, lifelong dividends
Nike dared to give Jordan such a sky-high contract back then, but there were requirements, that is: to win the Rookie of the Year award within three years Become an All-Star, average 2 points per game within three years, and sell $4 million in sneakers within three years. If Jordan fails to complete these four tasks, the five-year contract will be terminated two years early.
But all the contract requirements were completed by the invincible Jordan in his rookie season. Even the sales task of 4 million US dollars, which was considered the most difficult at the time, reached an astonishing 70 million US dollars three months later. US dollars. Such an amazing performance also allowed Nike to agree with Jordan and his agent to later build the "AJ" branch brand, and even gave him high lifelong dividends in return.
"Flying Man" Michael Jordan, one of the greatest players in NBA history. During Jordan's career, he not only saved the NBA from a sluggish market twice, but his appearance also helped a small company on the verge of bankruptcy, which was Nike at that time.
In 1984, Nike originally took out the only US$2.5 million in its pocket and planned to use it to sign Jordan, Barkley and other rookies. However, due to the temptation of Adidas, Nike, which did not have many chips, soon It was difficult to get the person you wanted, so in the end, Nike decided to fight for tomorrow. They gave all 2.5 million US dollars to Jordan. They signed a 5-year, 2.5 million US dollars contract with Jordan. This price had exceeded that of Magic and Jordan. Bird's treatment.
With Jordan, Nike also got the foundation for a turnaround. Jordan brought too many things to Nike. In just his rookie season, Jordan brought Nike sales of US$108 million. Because of this, Nike fulfilled its promise to create a brand with Jordan's name, and Jordan will serve as a permanent partner of the brand, and this brand is now popular all over the world - air jordan.
Jordan How much dividends can you get from the AJ brand every year?
It has been 35 years since AJ was founded. It has also grown from a small company back then to a behemoth with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars today. As the company gets bigger and the brand gets stronger, the dividends Jordan gets every year are naturally staggering.
According to data released by Forbes wealth rankings, in 2019, Jordan's sales dividends from AJ reached an astonishing US$130 million. With AJ's annual dividends of hundreds of millions of US dollars, Jordan's total net worth has also reached US$2.1 billion. , which also helped Jordan successfully enter the top 100 of Forbes' American rich list.
Dong Qiu Di talked about the game:
Jordan and AJ were like a beautiful encounter. Jordan gave the AJ brand life and influence, and the AJ brand continued to grow after Jordan retired. The wealth delivered to Jordan. Therefore, sometimes it is really not easy to talk about chasing Jordan. When one day a player can reach Jordan's treatment, it is not too late to catch up. It is worth mentioning that this is only Jordan's annual dividend. If you add Jordan's shares in AJ, it will be really disappointing.
In the latest Forbes celebrity rankings, James ranks first among active NBA players with an annual income of nearly US$88 million. Behind him is Stephen Curry, the star player from the Golden State Warriors. Although James' team contract is not as high as Curry's, the two sides are not at the same level in terms of off-field income. Because James' investment areas are too broad, including Apple headphones and rich Paul's economic company, after Liverpool won the Premier League championship, James, as a small shareholder, once again made a lot of money.
Of course, no matter how rich James is, he is far inferior to the other two retired NBA greats. One is O'Neal, who owns shares in Google, and the other is Jordan, who owns shares in AJ. And Michael, known as the God of Basketball, has naturally become the number one earner off the court. Because without Jordan, Nike would not be able to grow to what it is today. After joining the Chicago Bulls as the No. 3 pick that year, Jordan was looking for an off-court endorsement contract.
Jordan set his sights on Adidas at that time, because compared to Nike, it was the leader in sports brands. However, Adidas's attitude was not sincere, and it was Nike that finally impressed Jordan. At that time, Nike would never have thought that the man in front of him would cause him to undergo earth-shaking changes. Winning six NBA championships has made Jordan's name famous all over the world, and Nike has become the top-selling sports brand every year.
So Nike took a fancy to this sweet potato and reached a new agreement with Jordan. The latter not only became the spokesperson of the AJ brand, but also a small shareholder of the brand. Today, AJ has become one of the most luxurious items in the eyes of men, with annual sales profits reaching billions of dollars. Jordan, who owns 5% of the shares, also earns nearly $130 million in income from AJ every year.