Any NBA player’s dream is to be sponsored by Nike. Nike has 11 of the 15 highest paid endorsement deals in sports, including contracts with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, etc.

LeBron just signed a lifetime contract with them that is worth upwards of $1 billion.

Stephen Curry, on the other hand, refuses to work with Nike. His reason why will blow your mind…

Nike had and still has a stranglehold on the basketball shoe market. In 2014, Nike had a whopping 95.5% of the market. It signed 68% of ALL NBA players, 74% if you count the Jordan brand that is owned by Nike.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, 11 out of the 12 players on the USA basketball team were signed by Nike. The 12th player was Kevin Love, who wasn’t signed but just wore Nikes during that time. Even the coach, Mike Krzyzewski, was signed by Nike! Stephen Curry even had really close ties to Nike..