Michael Jordan, Who Ruined Reebok’s $4 Million Plan, Used the American Flag to Protect His Nike Deal: Scottie Pippen

In 1992, the Dream Team featuring Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and co. secured a gold medal in the Olympics. During the medal ceremony, the team walked to the podium wearing matching tracksuits. The colors of the American Flag dominated the tracksuit. This uniform carried the logo of the team’s sponsor Reebok. What stood out to the world was that three players of the team had wrapped the American flag over their shoulders. Thereby covering the Reebok logo. The players were Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Magic Johnson. Recently, Scottie Pippen opened up about this incident.

Back in the day, Nike and Reebok were the frontrunners in the NBA and sneaker industry. Players like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley had endorsement deals with Nike. With this in mind, it was almost certain that Nike would bag the rights to sponsor the 1992 Olympics’ dream team. However, due to pending litigation, Nike failed to do so.

Reebok claimed the deal included supplying the team with a tracksuit for the medal ceremony and clothes for the team warm-ups. Reports stated that Reebok had spent a sum of 4 million dollars to get all this done. However, Jordan, Barkley, and Magic Johnson protested and hampered Reebok’s publicity.

Scottie Pippen on Michael Jordan and the Olympics incident

For Michael Jordan, it was simple. He wanted to stay loyal to the brand that helps and works with him. Hence, he didn’t want to flaunt the Reebok logo. Charles Barkley had the same reasoning. On the other hand, Magic Johnson was sponsored by the brand Converse and he too wanted to stay loyal.

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Hence the trio decided to cover Reebok’s logo with the American Flag. The six-time NBA Champion reasoned this out and claimed that they didn’t want to deface Reebok.

He said, “The American flag cannot deface anything. That’s what we stand for. The American dream is standing up for what you believe in. I believed in it, and I stood up for it. If I offended anyone, that’s too bad.” Recently, in an interview with Sole Collector, Scottie Pippen opened up about this. He confirmed that there was no pressure from Nike’s end and Jordan didn’t have any negative intentions.

The seven-time NBA All-Star said, “I think you know at the time like I’m not having to protect Nike you know I’m representing the U.S.” 

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