Steph Curry turned down Nike offer after they made one brutal mistake during their pitch to sign him

Steph Curry turned down Nike's offer after they made a huge mistake during their pitch to sign him.

When Curry emerged as a budding NBA superstar, all the recognisable sportswear brands pulled out all the stops to acquire the American athlete.

At the time, Curry showed true promise but had not yet won any of his four NBA championships, two regular season MVP awards or even made a single All-Star appearance.

He had worn Nike throughout the first four years of his professional career but was looking for a major sponsorship deal.

His family fielded offers from all of the major sportswear brands, including Under Armour and Nike.

Under Armour, an upstart company at the time, proposed a deal worth $4 million-per-year plus a signature shoe and the chance to become the face of the brand.

Steph Curry wore Nike in the first four years of his professional career. Image: Getty

Nike, on the other hand, offered $2.5 million-per-year.

But their pitch went horribly wrong when one of their representatives made an unforgivable error.

A Nike official inexplicably mispronounced Curry's first name, calling him 'Steph-on' instead of 'Steph-en'.

That wasn't their only blunder as a repurposed PowerPoint side displayed Kevin Durant's name.

It goes without saying, Curry signed a deal with Under Armour in 2013 before penning a nine-year contract extension in 2015. In 2020, Under Armour announced the launch of the Curry Brand.

Nico Harrison, who was Nike's Vice President of North American basketball operations, took the brunt of the backlash and was associated with the company's infamous mistake.

But he addressed the rumours that he was the person who mispronounced Curry's name as he set the record straight.

"There is an article out. And the article says I mispronounced his name. It wasn't me. It absolutely wasn't me," he said on the Point Forward podcast. "But they didn't know the other person, they knew me. So, they say I mispronounced his name because it's sexy.

"But I'm like, first of all, I've known this guy forever, like since he was in high school. I used to represent his dad. How am I going to mispronounce his name? I might have called him Seth, but I wasn't going to mispronounce his name.

"So yeah, Nike made a mistake. In all honesty, if he would have stayed with Nike, his business would be a monster right now. A monster."