A STEAL FOR REAL

Forget Cyber Monday. Black Friday who? Every once in a while, there is a deal to be made that simply seems too good to be true. And sometimes, it is.

Here are four mind-blowing examples from the realms of the BSTN universe that ended up being some of the biggest bargains or remain some of the wildest what-ifs. Including that one offer that might have landed a certain Lakers legend a Nike deal in Jordan Brand-esque proportions before Air Jordan even took flight.

The Swoosh Cost How Much?

You can’t say ‘iconic logos’ without saying ‘Nike’. Ok, actually you can, but you know what we mean: If the Swoosh needs an explanation at all, it evokes connotations of athletics, has been immortalized via countless Swoosh tattoos on die-hard Nike heads, and is recognized faster than the sound it’s named after. Do you know how much the Oregon brand paid young design student Carolyn Davidson for the design back in 1971? A sweet $35.

But the story doesn’t end here: In 1983, Phil Knight invited Davidson to a company reception and presented her with a Swoosh-engraved diamond gold ring and chocolate Swooshes. The sweetest present though? An envelope filled with 500 shares of Nike stock, which are worth around $4 million today.

A Story About 4 Billion Quarters

To say ‘NBA Jam’ was an arcade hit in 1993, isn’t an understatement, but rather an insult. The popular game brought in $ 1 billion USD in its first year alone – and all in quarters too. To put that into (highly theoretical) perspective: That’s 60% of Liechtenstein’s GDP that year. It’s 8 million pairs of Jordan IXs (at the 1993 retail price). And it’s every fifth person worldwide having shouted along the game’s iconic catch phrases “Boomshakalakka”, “He’s heating up” or “He’s on fire!”. The price for these über-popular soundbites? Exactly $850.

At $50 an hour for reading the lines, voice artist Tim Kitzrow didn’t exactly cash out in the first place, but did profit from it in the long term too: The Chicagoan went on to voice other popular games like ‘NFL Blitz’, ‘Wayne Gretzky Hockey’, becane the only talent in gaming to voice all four major sports leagues, and frequently attends Conventions and ‘NBA Jam’ events thanks to the game he helped to make legendary.

Good Deal, Bad Boy?

Even if you weren’t born yet in 1997, chances are high you might hear that year’s biggest hip hop record blaring from your supermarket’s speakers just tomorrow: To this day, ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ by Puff Daddy still gets frequent worldwide airplay. And even though the mogul-turned-rapper’s song about the loss of his friend Biggie propelled the former to unexptected stardom, the song mostly meant payday for somebody else: Singer Sting.

As Puff Daddy infamously missed to get sample clearance for ‘I’ll Be Watching You’ by The Police, which the track samples heavily, it left Sting (from The Police) with 100% publishing rights for the record. Things get a little bit complicated from there, but to make a long story short: Puff Daddy ended up ‘only’ earning money from the physical sales. Sauce Money, the 90s New York rap veteran who ghostwrote Puffy’s lyrics, got “close to $100,000” instead of “about $4 million” (but more ghostwriting jobs subsequently). Sting’s royalties on the other hand are still coming in and already, quote, put some of his kids through college.

Earvin ‘Nike’ Johnson?

The biggest bargain that-could-have-been comes last: That’s when a young Magic Johnson passed on a sponsorship deal with Nike in the early 1980s. With no big budget up their sleeves yet, the upstart Oregon-based brand offered the Lakers player a significant stake in the company instead.

Magic declined, opted for an already-established brand with Converse instead, and even though he consequently missed out on a whopping 5,2 billion (!) by Nike, the Hall of Famer seems to have found his peace with it. Watch the video above for the story of the deal that could have been on the level of Jordan Brand, which is still best told by the man himself.