Caitlin Clark vs Michael Jordan: Comparing Indiana Star’s $28 Million Nike Deal to 6x NBA Champ’s Blockbuster Contract

Even after two decades of his retirement, Michael Jordan is still the biggest name for Nike than any other NBA athlete. And now comes Nike’s deal with Caitlin Clark as the biggest ever with any of the WNBA athletes. Notably, Clark has signed a $28 million contract with Nike, and the deal includes her own signature shoe. However, Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike employee who had convinced the sporting apparel brand Nike to sign Michael Jordan, believes Clark deserves a similar deal to that of Mike. It is worth mentioning that Nike had plans to sign multiple future NBA athletes with the money they had back in the 80s.

It was Vaccaro who convinced Nike to devote all their resources to just Jordan in 1984. This was a big step considering it was just Jordan’s debut year. But Vaccaro’s suggestion turned out to be more fruitful for the brand than imagined. So it has to hold some value when a person like him believes that Caitlin Clark could have earned a deal similar to the 6x NBA champ. “She should have gotten a piece of everything… just like Michael Jordan,” he told TMZ Sports. However, this also brings Caitlin Clark’s deal in comparison to Mike’s deal with Nike back in 1984. 

A closer look into Michael Jordan’s deal with Nike and its impact

Back in 1984, Nike was looking to establish itself as a running shoe company. However, the company co-founder Phil Knight wanted the company’s struggling basketball division to evolve. This was the time Vaccaro, the expert in Nike’s basketball sector in 1984, urged Knight to bet the $250,000 basketball marketing budget entirely on Michael Jordan. MJ eventually signed a five-year endorsement deal for $2.5 million.

This was said to be 3x more than any other deal in the NBA at the time and that too on a rookie. However, the most important part of this deal was the Bulls icon also landing the offer of 5% royalties, and his own line of sneakers. But Nike’s move did not go in vain as Michael Jordan earned himself the title of Rookie of the Year. He was also voted to the Eastern Conference All-Star team and All-NBA Second Team. With this, Mike gained a quick popularity in the entire basketball community, which worked in Nike’s favor.

Nike launched the Air Jordan sneaker line in 1984 and they had a target of making $3 million from it in the first three years. But $126 million in one year was something that even Nike had not expected. This acted as the foundation stone of Nike and MJ’s symbiotic relationship with each other. The sports apparel behemoth, in partnership with MJ, launched the Jordan Brand (originally called ‘Brand Jordan’) in 1997.

As per reports, Nike made $6.6 billion in 2023 with the Jordan brand. And due to 5% royalty deal with Nike, Mike is now making more money than his entire NBA earnings. So it can be seen that it was the royalty clause in the contract that proved to be more fruitful for Michael Jordan than the contract amount back then. This explains why Sonny Vaccaro stated that Caitlin Clark should have a piece of everything.

Examining Caitlin Clark’s $28 Million deal with Nike

There is no denying that Clark has had a significant impact on the WNBA even before her debut. And this has earned her a $28 million deal for a period of 8 years along with own signature sneakers. However, Vaccaro has stated that the Indiana Pacers star’s representatives lacked on their end. He believes they could have got some sort of profit-sharing scenario for her. “I’m saying to you they messed up. They should have held on to the last drop,” Vaccaro said.

Businessman and social media personality, David Portnoy, also expressed his strong disappointment. He believes that Nike is in a way stealing from Clark with this deal. “If people want to complain about Caitlin Clark getting screwed complain about this. 8 year 28 million deal is STEALING. 8 years 80 million min is her worth and that’s still prob too cheap,” he posted on X.  

However, Clark going through with this deal reflects she is probably not too disappointed with this contract. And a large section of the basketball community considers Michael Jordan a once in a lifetime phenomenon, so this comparison may seem unfair. Moreover, Clark has positives to look at in the fact that her impact brought the biggest ever sponsorship deal for any WNBA athlete.