How Marcus Jordan once cost his school a sponsorship deal with adidas

Appearing on the Bulls Talk podcast with Jason Goff, Marcus Jordan reacted to “The Last Dance” and said that people often forget that his father Michael is, in fact, human.

“I think the fact that he’s been an icon since literally 1984… Oftentimes people forget that, yeah, he’s Michael Jordan, but there’s human element behind that,” Marcus told Goff. “I think ‘The Last Dance’ did a great job showcasing a little bit of that.”

Marcus also shared the story of Nike coming to the rescue when he was a freshman at the University of Central Florida. At the time, UCF had a sponsorship deal with adidas. According to Jordan, he was told during the recruiting process that there would be no issue with him wearing Nike shoes in games.

But in his very first contest, adidas suddenly raised a fuss.

“Literally in the first timeout of that exhibition game, one of the assistant coaches comes to me and says [adidas] just pulled the deal,” Marcus told Goff. “They pulled the deal.”

Adidas would end up pulling their contract with the school, but Nike rushed to fill the void.