{"id":1140218,"date":"2020-04-14T10:31:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T14:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1140218"},"modified":"2020-08-27T23:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T03:42:54","slug":"how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/","title":{"rendered":"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Nike thrives on controversy with ads by athletes already under contract, including <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/how-charles-barkleys-controversial-i-am-not-a-role-model-nike-spot-came-to-be\/\">Charles Barkley<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/is-colin-kaepernick-getting-his-own-shoe-and-will-people-buy-it\/\">Colin Kaepernick<\/a>. In the case of John McEnroe, however, trouble fell into the lap of the footwear and apparel giant. The story of how McEnroe became an endorser of its products is vintage Nike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ilie Nastase left Nike in a bind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John McEnroe\u2019s epic Wimbledon meltdown: \u2018You cannot be serious!\u2019 | ESPN Archives\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ransFQVzf6c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Athletes endorsing shoes and clothes has become commonplace, and Michael Jordan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-and-nike-faced-832-million-lawsuit-from-obsessive-fan\/\">association with Nike<\/a> could be a two-semester course for marketing majors in college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Jordan and golfer <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tiger-woods-most-memorable-commercial-wasnt-planned\/\">Tiger Woods<\/a> maintained relatively squeaky-clean images in their Nike campaigns regardless of what was happening in their personal lives. Contrast that with the string of tennis bad boys including Andre Agassi and John McEnroe that aligned with Nike, bringing an edge to its advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Romanian tennis star Ilie Nastase was the first in that long line of tennis stars whose behavior on the court made news as often as his wins and losses did, and he was already wearing the company\u2019s shoes when Nike co-founder <a href=\"https:\/\/solecollector.com\/news\/2016\/04\/nike-facts-phil-knight-memoir\/\">Phil Knight took notice<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Now here was a top athlete already wearing Nike, and winning in it. How hard could it be to sign him? I found the number for Nastase's agent. I phoned and offered him a deal. I said I'd give him $5,000 &#8212; I gagged as I said it &#8212; if his boy would wear our stuff. He countered with $15,000. How I hated negotiating. We settled on $10,000. I felt that I was being robbed.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Just\na few years later, however, Nastase switched brands and signed an endorsement\ndeal with Adidas, leaving Nike without a top tennis player promoting its brand\non the courts in the sport\u2019s biggest events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Phil Knight discovers John McEnroe on a scouting trip<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Love this segment from Nike founder Phil Knight\u2019s autobiography. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BTB6kBQbdp\">pic.twitter.com\/BTB6kBQbdp<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BastienFachan\/status\/1249357350240124929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 12, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nike\nco-founder Phil Knight published his memoir in 2016 as his career in charge of\nthe massively successful company was winding down. In it, Knight told the story\nof losing Ilie Nastase to Adidas, which was going to pay $100,000 a year. Nike\nhad the right to match but it declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFiscally\nirresponsible,\u201d Knight recalled telling Nastase\u2019s agent in 1977. \u201cNo one will\never see a sports endorsement deal that big ever again!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nneed of a new face to promote one of its most promising lines of shoes, Knight\nhired a tennis insider who could introduce him to people and help make\nconnections. They headed off to Wimbledon in late June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knight\u2019s consultant lined up a meeting with some American tennis officials who pointed to Eliot Teltscher, who hadn\u2019t turned pro yet, and Brian Gottfried, who had already reached the round of 16 in a few grand slam events. And then one of the officials warned Knight to stay away from another young American prospect who was playing a match at that moment because the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/john-mcenroe-is-the-owner-of-the-biggest-tantrum-in-professional-sports\/\">kid was \u201ca hothead.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wrote\nKnight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cI went straight to Court 14. And fell madly, hopelessly in love with a frizzy-haired high schooler from New York City named John McEnroe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nike and John McEnroe were a winning team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WjLJI4m0unY\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1978 marriage between <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/how-many-tennis-grand-slams-did-john-mcenroe-win\/\">John McEnroe<\/a> and Nike wasn\u2019t always smooth as the American tennis star agreed to wear Nike shoes and socks but resisted endorsing lucrative apparel and equipment lines early on. Still, the arrangement blossomed quickly. After McEnroe switched to their three-quarter-top shoes on the court, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/197534\ufeff\">Nike sales grew<\/a> from 10,000 pairs to more than 1 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McEnroe would go on\nto win Wimbledon three times and the U.S. Open four times from 1979 to 1984. He\nfinished his career with 16 singles or doubles titles at those two grand slam tournaments\nand was also a regular on the U.S. Davis Cup team at a time when that\ncompetition enjoyed a high profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McEnroe won both his\nsingles matches in the 1978 Davis Cup final to give the United States its first\nchampionship in six years. In 1982, he battled Sweden\u2019s Mats Wilander in the deciding\nmatch of a quarterfinal that lasted six hours, 22 minutes. McEnroe won, 9-7,\n6-2, 15-17, 3-6, 8-6. His five-set loss to Boris Becker of Germany in 1987\nlasted six hours, 20 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":1140229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12944],"tags":[9353],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Nike&#039;s Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time at Wimbledon.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time at Wimbledon.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-14T14:31:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-28T03:42:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-McEnroe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"797\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Sports7J\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/\",\"name\":\"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man - 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A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"\",\"Sports7J\",\"john-moriello-1a11743\",\"\",\"\"],\"jobTitle\":\"John Moriello | Sports7 Staff Writer, Producer - Motorsports\",\"email\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man - Sports7","description":"Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time at Wimbledon.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man","og_description":"Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time at Wimbledon.","og_url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/","og_site_name":"Sports7","article_published_time":"2020-04-14T14:31:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-28T03:42:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":797,"url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-McEnroe.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Moriello","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Sports7J","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Moriello","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/","name":"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man - Sports7","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-McEnroe.jpg","datePublished":"2020-04-14T14:31:28+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-28T03:42:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac"},"description":"Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time at Wimbledon.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-McEnroe.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-McEnroe.jpg","width":1024,"height":797,"caption":"Nike co-founder Phil Knight knew he had to sign John McEnroe the moment he saw the tennis star play for the first time. | Neil Munns - PA Images\/PA Images via Getty Images"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/how-nikes-boss-knew-john-mcenroe-was-their-man\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Nike's Boss Knew John McEnroe Was Their Man"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/","name":"Sports7","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/author\/john-moriello\/","name":"John Moriello","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/John-Moriello-96x96.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/John-Moriello-96x96.jpeg","caption":"John Moriello"},"description":"John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sports7 in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.","sameAs":["","Sports7J","john-moriello-1a11743","",""],"jobTitle":"John Moriello | Sports7 Staff Writer, Producer - Motorsports","email":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140246,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140218\/revisions\/1140246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1140229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}