Adidas ‘turned down’ chance to endorse Michael Jordan in 1984

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

Everybody, at some stage, has looked back on a particular moment in their life and wished things would have played out a little differently.

In football, maybe Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wished he hadn’t have asked Zlatan Ibrahimovic to trial for the club instead of merely offering the then starlet a contract.

And in cricket, perhaps Kevin Pietersen wishes he hadn’t ostracised himself from his England team-mates and selectors by causing rifts within the squad and providing the opposition with useful advice on how best to bowl against his then captain.

But these two examples, and any other example you can possibly think of, will be trumped by German sportswear giant Adidas’ biggest regret.

According to a former employee, the franchise passed on endorsing NBA superstar Michael Jordan in 1984.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, a former employee said the following:

“In 1984, Adidas made a misstep that presaged others. A University of North Carolina basketball star named Michael Jordan wanted a sponsorship deal with Adidas when he went professional, say people familiar with the matter.

“Adidas distributors wanted to sign Mr. Jordan, says someone who was an Adidas distributor then. But executives in Germany decided shoppers would favour taller players and wanted to sponsor centers, the person says, adding: “We kept saying, ‘no—no one can relate to those guys. Who can associate with a seven-foot-tall guy?’”"

It goes without saying that Adidas will certainly regret that decision. And although they did endorse Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – whom they still make shoes for – passing up on clinching a deal with sport's first ever billionaire has got to be a hard pill to swallow.

Original post by World of Sport (Yahoo Eurosport)