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by Gerald Flores
Tracy McGrady is one of few NBA players to have a decent run of signature sneakers with adidas. The story of how he first linked up with the brand is pretty amazing.
According to ESPN 30 for 30's documentary Sole Man, T-Mac came to adidas during a time in the '90s when both the Three Stripes and Nike were trying to find the next Michael Jordan-like athlete through the high school basketball ranks. Unlike Kobe Bryant, who adidas signed to a million dollar deal as soon as he graduated, Nike was very interested in signing Tracy McGrady right out of high school. To counter, adidas ended up offering McGrady a $1.7 million sneaker contract, which was nearly double of what adidas was paying Kobe Bryant at the time.
But that wasn't all. Not only was T-Mac getting paid, but so was his high school coach. According to the doc, there was a provision in McGrady's adidas contract that paid his old coach $150,000 a year, for six years (that's nearly a million dollars). "I think it was right for these guys to get a percentage of my deal," T-Mac said. "If it wasn't for them, there would be no Tracy McGrady or T-Mac."
That initial sneaker deal eventually ended up giving McGrady six signature sneakers, of which several have been retroed in recent years. Sonny Vaccaro, who was consulting with adidas at the time and helped barter the Tracy McGrady deal, said the player did okay for himself despite only being 18 years old at the time.
"Tracy made a major decision without an education," Sonny said. "It turned out pretty good for him."
