All Michael Jordan wanted to wear was adidas in the NBA.

 Although he wore Converse at North Carolina, because his coach Dean Smith was getting paid about $10,000 a year to put the brand on his players, the German make was his dream.

 But adidas wasn’t making an offer. It wasn’t that they thought Jordan wasn't worth anything; they were just caught at a bad time. After company founder Adi Dassler died in 1978, his wife, Kathe, took over the business. But she had her son, Horst, and her four daughters each running separate divisions.

A great story on ESPN.com detailing Jordan signing with Nike and the rest, as they say, is history.