Kyrie Irving, Who Faced a Setback Like Kanye West, Earned $11M From One Deal That Was Peanuts Compared to Michael Jordan and LeBron James

The Brooklyn Nets have suspended Kyrie Irving for a minimum of five games. Kyrie has been in the news lately for a controversial social media post. Many have called on for Kyrie’s suspension from the NBA and the Nets in the past week. While the NBA hasn’t taken any action, the Nets decided to suspend the star guard through a string statement. After the Nets, now Nike suspended its relationship and ties with Kyrie Irving. This has led to the cancellation of the launch of his new signature shoe Kyrie 8. While Kyrie’s signature shoe was a big hit, he wasn’t rewarded with a good deal for that.

Kyrie Irving has been in the headlines for quite some time now, but for the wrong reasons. The Nets have already suspended Irving for five games, for which he will lose around $2.2 million of his salary. It was too late for the Nets guard to apologize, as it cost him the Nike deal. The Nike deal was among his biggest endorsements deals and losing it would be a big blow to his financials.

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Kyrie’s signature shoes were hugely popular around the world and rewarded Nike with huge profits. However, he didn’t get that good of a deal when compared to LeBron James and Michael Jordan.

Nike’s deal with Kyrie Irving wasn’t as good as LeBron and Michael Jordan’s

According to Sportico, Nike paid $11 million to Kyrie Irving last season from his endorsement deal. Kyrie’s signature shoe with Nike has been one of the top five best-selling shoes for the brand. They are also among the most popular ones among NBA players, second only to Kobe’s kicks in the 2019-20 season. However, despite being so popular among the fans and the NBA circles, Kyrie’s deal is nowhere close to being as good as LeBron James and Michael Jordan’s.

The current fallout between Kyrie and Nike is similar to what happened between Adidas and Kanye West. However, Kyrie has apologized for his controversial post on social media. Apart from Nike, Kyrie has endorsement deals with corporates such as Pepsi, Skullcandy, 2K Sports, etc. But the other brands are yet to respond to the Kyrie Irving controversy.

Michael Jordan and LeBron James are the biggest names when it comes to signature shoes. Jordan’s signature shoes’ annual contract value for last year was $150 million, while LeBron’s deal was $32 million. Irving’s Nike deal was around 33% of LeBron’s shoe deal with Nike.

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Do you agree with Nike’s decision to sever ties with Kyrie? Let us know in the comment section.