How Patrick Ewing came close to a Michael Jordan-like shoe deal with Nike

Patrick Ewing was one of the best players in the history of the NBA to have never won a championship ring. The 7-foot center spent the majority of his career playing with the New York Knicks, establishing himself as a dominant force in the paint.

Besides missing out on the championship, the Knicks big man also missed out on a huge shoe deal with Nike. Ewing was drafted as the first overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft, just a year after Michael Jordan entered the league.

By the time the center made his debut, the Chicago Bulls shooting guard already had a shoe line with Nike, which eventually caused issues with Ewing.

Patrick Ewing was very close to signing a massive deal with Nike

Nike is the largest footwear company in the world right now. With a market cap of $165 billion, the shoe manufacturer is way ahead of its competitors such as Adidas and Under Armour.

However, the situation was much different four decades ago. Converse and Adidas were prevalent in the NBA, but the Beaverton-based company wasn't going to go down without a fight.

Nike achieved a lot of success by signing Michael Jordan.

In 1984, the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan, one of the best young prospects. Nike went all in on Jordan, making the shooting guard their first signature athlete.

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Jordan's initial contract with Nike was worth $500,000 ($1.4 million adjusted for inflation), and the footwear company made more than $55 million from his shoes in just one year.

Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan were drafted a year apart of each other.

Thanks to this success, Nike had a big budget going into the 1985 NBA draft. With Patrick Ewing being the most interesting and best prospect, the footwear company was looking to sign him to a big contract.

Not only was the 7-foot center an incredible young player, but John Thompson, his college head coach, was a board member at Nike. It appears that the stars had aligned for the youngster and that he was going to be the next signature athlete for the brand.

Why didn't Ewing get a massive contract with Nike?

Patrick Ewing was going to have his own shoe line with Nike. The footwear company even introduced the so-called "E-Force" line, which was going to be Ewing's own collection.

The Beaverton company prepared everything for Ewing except one thing — his contract.

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Ewing was very close to getting a lucrative deal with Nike.

Ewing received a $750,000 offer from Adidas, which Nike was considering to match. All of the company's top executives voted on whether to match the contract or not, and the final vote — the swing vote — belonged to Peter Moore, the man who designed the E-Force line.

Considering how dedicated Moore was to making Ewing's shoe line a reality, everyone believed it was a done deal. Unfortunately for the Knicks' rookie, the shoe designer decided not to match the contract.

"I don’t want to be the guy that’s gonna call up Michael Jordan and tell him," Moore said during the meeting, explaining his decision. "'We just signed Patrick Ewing for $250,000 a year more than what we paid you — and we have you under contract for four more years at that price.'”

Ewing eventually lauched his own footwear company.

Ewing eventually signed a deal with Adidas. He was named Rookie of the Year and had a very successful professional career. However, it's interesting that he did not stay with the competing brand for a long time.

In 1988, Ewing launched his own brand of shoes called Ewing Athletics. The brand was very successful at first, growing rapidly and had a revenue of more than $40 million.

Patrick Ewing's shoe brand eventually closed in 1996 due to issues with distribution. However, the Hall of Famer brought the brand back in August 2012 and his shoes are now distrubted in more than 30 countries.