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00:00It's a matchup that everyone has waited for, the classic showdown.
00:13The Celtics and the Lakers, Bird against Magic.
00:17For so many years, it was Lakers-Celtics, Celtics-Lakers, back-to-back.
00:22I remember when I wrote about Magic and Larry, they met famously on the set of a Converse
00:27commercial, which was a very short and kind of lame commercial, to be honest.
00:33I heard Converse made a pair of bird shoes for last year's MVP.
00:38Yep.
00:39Well, they made a pair of Magic shoes for this year's MVP.
00:42Okay, Magic, show me what you got.
00:44The bird shoe, the Magic shoe.
00:47Choose your weapon from Converse.
00:50Converse was the only one, really, for a long time.
00:54We owned college basketball.
00:58Michael Jordan, he wore them in North Carolina.
01:00They were one of our schools.
01:02Michael drove up to Redding, where they make Converse, got a meeting up there, and said,
01:07I want to be an endorser for you.
01:09I've worn Converse my whole life.
01:10I grew up next to the town.
01:11My grandfather wore Converse.
01:13And apparently, it was, nah, no thanks.
01:16We're good.
01:17We got Magic and Larry.
01:19So, Jordan went over to Nike.
01:21The NBA can't stop you from wearing them.
01:25Air Jordans from Nike.
01:30Air Jordan changed everything.
01:31When the first Air Jordan came out in 1985, Nike hoped he would sell 5 million over the
01:38first five years of his deal.
01:40And they sold 100 million in less than a year.
01:44That was when they realized that one player could drive this.
01:50You know, nobody in the world would cover my main man, Michael Jordan.
01:54Nobody, nobody, nobody.
01:55Impossible.
01:56Impossible.
01:58However, it's easy to cover Mars Blackman.
02:00You couldn't have possibly forecasted how Jordan turned himself into a brand.
02:06The greatest players of all time, Dr. J and Magic and Larry and Kareem, none of them had
02:12done that.
02:13Other shoe companies started getting into the business, especially Reebok.
02:16Who's Reebok?
02:18We didn't even know who they were.
02:19We didn't even know who they were.
02:49I loved basketball my whole life.
02:57I majored in marketing, but did all of my papers based on what I would do if I worked
03:03for the NBA or for the Celtics or anything really with basketball.
03:08I heard a very familiar tale, which was there really aren't positions for women in sports.
03:15I interviewed for nine straight months before I got a chance, and the only people that would
03:21take a chance on me were Reebok.
03:24We were a tiny company.
03:25I think I was like the 16th person hired there at the time.
03:28At Reebok, we make basketball shoes designed to take you as far as you want to go, from
03:34the asphalt to the polished floors of the NBA.
03:37If we sign these regional people that are very accommodating to go into the grassroots, imagine
03:44what that will do for our brand.
03:46Weyman Tisdale was the first athlete that we signed and that I met, and Roy Hinson and
03:56Danny Ingen DJ came over from Nike.
03:59Those were our first four athletes with Reebok in 1986.
04:03They weren't one of 200 guys, and they didn't call a call center.
04:08They called me.
04:11That's what they really wanted.
04:12They didn't want to get lost in the sea of a million swooshes.
04:15They wanted to be used.
04:20Dominique Wilkins was with Brooks at the time, and they weren't really doing anything with
04:23him, and so his agent contacted us and said he would really like to be with a company that
04:28wants to do things, and are you really going to be a player in basketball?
04:31Because that's important to him.
04:35He was born in Paris, and so one of the first trips I did was with Dominique to take him
04:40back to France.
04:42Dominique became the first athlete that we signed that was really a significant player
04:49for Reebok.
04:56Dominique was a premier scorer in his prime.
04:59The guy's nickname was the human highlight film, which pretty much summed him up.
05:06So for Reebok, that was a huge get.
05:09I mean, if you look at Michael Jordan in the 80s, he would have been noted for scoring and
05:14his dunk contest performance.
05:17Dominique Wilkins was a guy who could keep up with Jordan in both of those things.
05:20It's a perfect score of 50 from Dominique Wilkins.
05:25The answers were getting bigger.
05:26They were getting stronger.
05:27The game was getting a lot faster.
05:29The guards, the forwards, the centers, they were all becoming much more specified athletes
05:34on the basketball court.
05:36The footwear needed to catch up.
05:38The product creation team, we kind of like had to go head down and work on what's next.
05:43The one that rose fairly quickly to the top was an inflatable system.
05:50We were proposing to put this inflatable device inside of the shoes.
05:55Now at the same time, the Nike team had this shoe called the Nike Air Pressure.
06:01It was their own version of an inflatable shoe.
06:03Nike had decided that they were going to have an external device to inflate the shoes so
06:09that they could minimize the cost and the weight and all that kind of stuff, which is, you know,
06:13it's a decent approach.
06:15What we chose early on, on the Reebok pump, was that everything was going to be on your
06:19shoe.
06:20I liked the Reebok approach because I thought it was more elegant and simpler for people.
06:24In February of 89, we're at the Atlanta Super Show, which was a big show.
06:33Our CEO, our president, Paul Fireman, he basically held it up at this Atlanta shoe show, and he
06:39said, this is the new standard of footwear of the 90s.
06:45By the end of the summer of 89, we had a shoe that worked.
06:49We were going to production build it.
06:50Most basketball shoes were about $80, $90, $100.
06:55The retailers, they had a lot of trepidation.
06:58Footloaker was going to take a few thousand as a favor.
07:01We had very little orders.
07:03We had to retail for $170.
07:08$170, it's like a gimmick, you know?
07:11Run it for $170.
07:13Put it for down payment on a car.
07:15Put it by sneakers.
07:17That's ridiculous.
07:18Let's say $170, Nick.
07:21Oh, my gosh.
07:22But it has the pump features.
07:24That's what I'm saying.
07:25You don't get that when you see just any sneaker there.
07:27I understand this.
07:28But still, we paid $100,000.
07:30I really, because you're cheap.
07:34The pump isn't really doing what we hoped it would do.
07:37And we're not sure if it's because it's a little bit heavy, or if it's the price point, and people aren't used to that from Reebok yet.
07:45So the original pump, we did a commercial with Dominique.
07:50You know, the first time I wore my pumps from Reebok, I got so excited, I sent a pair to my friend Danny and said, it's time to play.
07:57And he showed up.
07:58So I sent a pair to my friend Doc, and he showed up.
08:02Hey, Steve, lock up when you're done.
08:05Dominique, Doc Rivers, Pat Riley, we were all out there in L.A. doing this commercial.
08:10We started filming this kind of behind the scenes, and what do you think of the pump?
08:15And just to get another avenue for the players to be genuine and not read something scripted off of an ad agency, and that ended up becoming the commercial.
08:24The key is the pump.
08:26This is your pump.
08:26Push this little thing here, and you just pump.
08:29Pump, pump, pump, pump.
08:30You know how to do that, don't you?
08:31Five or six pumps.
08:32I say 15 pumps.
08:3320 to 25 times.
08:3570 pumps will do it.
08:36You know what I'm going to use this also is to intimidate people.
08:38These themes in here are on what they're called, airbags.
08:41When you want to release, it's a little button back here that you just push down, and you can hear the air, leaving the pump.
08:49I think we're onto something here.
08:50That commercial was not scripted.
08:53We used outtakes of footage that we just planned on airing at our sales meeting.
08:58Some people like BMWs.
09:00I like gym shoes.
09:01We had great players that are making impacts in their markets, but we didn't have that kind of arrogance, if you will,
09:08or swagger, and then we signed Chuck Daly, and Chuck gets us Dennis Rodman.
09:14Great defense starts with your feet, and I have MVP feet.
09:18That's why I plan to pump from Reebok.
09:21When I'm pumped up, I get support, protection, and a custom fit that's unbeatable.
09:25I'm a hot dog, but when it comes to protection, this is no bull.
09:30Pump up and air out.
09:32The notion that Reebok was going to make a performance shoe and bring it right at Nike's face,
09:38that was part of the intensity, and that was part of the rivalry of the early 90s in sneakers.
09:45The pump from Reebok.
09:47It fits a little better than your ordinary athletic shoe.
09:50The pump was really starting to take off.
09:52This was a full-on street fight.
09:56Pump up and air out.
09:59We were a really young company, and we were basically taking Nike and head on.
10:03We were sick of being the disrespected, like, you know, little brother on the block.
10:08We're not just the nice guys.
10:10We're here to play.
10:12So, Michael, my man, if you want to fly first class, pump up and air out.
10:17Here we are at the All-Star Weekend, and we've always kind of been second to Nike.
10:27But we felt pretty good about the pump.
10:30You know, it was starting to take on a lot of momentum, and then all of a sudden, we signed Sean Kemp.
10:39A lot of the talk that year was Sean Kemp.
10:41Kemp was the guy who was sort of the heir apparent to Dominique Wilkins, to Michael Jordan.
10:49Kemp was the guy.
10:54So, we're hoping, okay, if he wins Slam Dunk, we'll do some marketing.
10:59He'll be thrilled, and we'll have our chance to kind of let the world know that Sean Kemp is ours.
11:05So, we're thinking about these print ads to congratulate Sean.
11:09We think this is his time, and along comes D. Brown.
11:12He's going to compete in the Slam Dunk contest.
11:17I got into, like, maybe, like, two weeks before the contest.
11:22One guy dropped out.
11:23A bigger name dropped out.
11:26I was overlooked, and I know that.
11:29People just had no clue on the things I could do.
11:31We flew down to Charlotte together, and we talked about he really wanted to distinguish himself as somebody to be noticed in the NBA.
11:41We weren't a sponsor of Slam Dunk, but we were trying to come up with this, you know, unique marketing thing, of course.
11:50And so, we talked about pumping his shoes.
11:55It was a shoe that came out that people kind of didn't get the concept of.
12:00Joanne mentioned this, like, think about it, you know, show people how nice his shoe is.
12:05And I was playing in the shoe all season.
12:07So, it wasn't like I just brought up for the contest.
12:09I was wearing a shoe.
12:11Everybody came to the dunk contest.
12:15That was the event.
12:16You didn't have camera phones and things like that, so you had to be there to enjoy it live in person.
12:22Thank you very much.
12:22We'll be two-time Slam Dunk champion, Dominique Wilkins.
12:25Dominique, before the competition starts, who do you like?
12:28Oh, man, it's tough to you.
12:29Right now, I think Sean, by being with him this summer, he's going to be tough to beat.
12:33Of course, Kenny Smith is...
12:34Every player was there.
12:36Every celebrity was there.
12:38I'm looking at some of the people there that were just actors or actresses.
12:44And as you remember, Will Smith must be on the sideline.
12:47And he was just up and coming, you know, fresh prints.
12:50And I'm worried about...
12:52I can't embarrass myself.
12:53I've missed my first dunk.
12:55So, I'm sitting next to Sean Kemp.
12:57These kids are asking for autographs.
13:00So, the one kid goes, hey, Sean, is that your little brother next to you?
13:03Because we had the same haircut.
13:05I look at the kid and say, no, I'm not his little brother.
13:06I'm in the contest.
13:07The kids started laughing and walked off.
13:10So, I was like, oh, you know what?
13:11I've got to do something real special with Wyoming, Charlotte.
13:15Oh, he's pumping his shoes up.
13:17Oh, yeah, yeah, no.
13:18There, first of all, he's got the favorite right there.
13:20He's pumping up his shoes.
13:26That's worth about a million bucks to it right there.
13:29Another high-clopping lob.
13:30I had to really change the mindset of the crowd from Sean Kemp and two local guys who was
13:45in a contest for the Hornets.
13:46I got something for all this.
13:48And I got a bunch of dunks that nobody's seen before of Don.
13:51It was easy for me.
13:51Oh, yeah.
13:52Oh, yeah.
13:53Oh, yeah.
13:54Come on.
13:55Come on.
13:55Come on.
13:55Come on.
13:56Come on.
13:56If any simply comes out, that's the one right there tonight.
13:57Oh, my goodness.
13:58Everybody don't know how little that man is.
13:59That is unbelievable.
14:00I already have, kind of, my dunk lift.
14:01I had, like, 12 dunks I could do.
14:02And he was in a contest for the Hornets.
14:04He was in a contest for the Hornets.
14:06I got something for all this.
14:07And I got a bunch of dunks that nobody's seen before of Don.
14:10It was easy for me.
14:11Oh, yeah.
14:12Come on.
14:13Come on.
14:14Come on.
14:15Come on.
14:16Come on.
14:17If any simply comes out, that's the one right there tonight.
14:18Oh, my goodness.
14:19Everybody don't know how little that man is.
14:21That is unbelievable.
14:22I already have, kind of, my dunk lift.
14:25I had, like, 12 dunks I could do.
14:26My last dunk was going to be with the hat.
14:29I was going to dunk the Reebok hat and then dunk the ball.
14:32So that's what we're talking about.
14:33Say, hey, if you get to finals, dunk the Reebok hat and dunk the ball.
14:37That was really my last dunk.
14:39It was Brown and Kemp going into finals.
14:42Now, Sean Kemp is in his second year but only 21 years old.
14:46Youngest player in the NBA.
14:47Dee Brown is 22 years old, a rookie.
14:49I found out when I was going into my last dunk that I couldn't use any hats or props or anything.
14:54So it kind of blew up that whole situation.
14:57I just got to do something different.
15:00I got to do something special.
15:01And the rest is history.
15:03Oh, my.
15:04That's the cherry on the sundae.
15:06Sean Kemp knows it.
15:07Everybody knows it.
15:08Dee Brown, 22-year-old looking.
15:09Get in the house.
15:10Oh!
15:11Oh, my.
15:12Oh, my.
15:13That's the cherry on the sundae.
15:19Sean Kemp knows it.
15:20Everybody knows it.
15:21Dee Brown, 22-year-old looking.
15:25Get in the house.
15:26Oh!
15:27For this company, Massachusetts company, to devise pump shoes, to have your slam dunk entry,
15:39this young kid, do it on cue and then win!
15:42Because if he missed it, no one would ever remember it.
15:46We're such a visual group of consumers, aren't we?
15:49And that was a great visual for Reebok
15:51and a great bump for Dee Brown.
15:52I was glad to see it happen.
15:55After I won a dunk contest,
15:57all of a sudden I was that celebrity.
15:58I was that guy.
15:59It was that night.
16:01I'm at the NBA party and NBA guys are coming to me.
16:04Hey, great job, boom, boom, boom.
16:06Party's going on and something happened.
16:09Fans start breaching the area.
16:12Security's pushing on the players.
16:13They're going to get out.
16:14And all of a sudden, I run into Michael Jordan.
16:20Somehow, and I still to this day think this is premeditated,
16:23somehow I got in the same alleyway
16:24with me, Michael Jordan, and his bodyguards.
16:27So I'm like, well, how did this happen?
16:29This is very, very odd.
16:31He goes, you know, you know,
16:33you used to start the shoe wars.
16:35I go, what?
16:36Well, I don't understand what you're saying.
16:38He could have said anything to me at that time.
16:40I didn't care. It was Michael Jordan.
16:42When I got back to my hotel room
16:43and kind of told Joanne,
16:45I said, Michael Jordan told me I just started shoe wars.
16:48I just remember getting a call
16:53from Paul Feynman at my hotel room.
16:56Then I picked it up and he was like,
16:58Joanne, you don't have any idea
17:00what happened to the pump over the weekend.
17:01The pumps had flown off the shelves.
17:06You couldn't find them anywhere.
17:09Everybody wanted the pump.
17:11Everybody wanted D.
17:15The whole thing just changed.
17:17We always started the second half of the season on the road.
17:23And I remember we're coming out of the hotel,
17:25Bird walks out, and I walk out.
17:28And all the fans ran past Bird
17:30and started asking for my autograph.
17:33And I was in shock.
17:35What is going on here?
17:36This is surreal.
17:37This is coming really fast.
17:39Hey, D, D Brown,
17:41what are you doing here in New York?
17:42Purchasing my new dunk
17:43in my new shoes.
17:45Reebok Omnizones.
17:46Reebok Omnizones?
17:47Yeah.
17:47Very lightweight,
17:48which is key for this jam.
17:50Oh, yeah?
17:51Which jam?
17:52The King Kong jam.
17:57It went from the Ricky
17:59who's playing well with the Celtics
18:00to the guy
18:01who changed the shoe game
18:02overnight.
18:05I didn't have to say,
18:06I bumped my shoe and it jumped higher.
18:07I did, and everybody was like,
18:09man, that must make it jump higher.
18:11That was the effect.
18:14The pump outsold drawings
18:17in the calendar year.
18:19That was the first time ever.
18:20It was crazy.
18:22That was the face of Reebok,
18:24and I was part of the recruiting process
18:25of getting these guys to sign as well.
18:34Coming out of high school,
18:35I was number one playing in high school.
18:38To me,
18:38it went so fast,
18:40and at that time,
18:41Las Vegas had one thing
18:43as far as sports,
18:44and that was the college,
18:45UNLV.
18:46You know,
18:47every day,
18:48we was on TV.
18:52I would say
18:52I was a physical guy.
18:54I enjoyed the contact down low.
18:56I loved the contact,
18:57loved to get physical.
18:59I would really leave the floor.
19:01I had like a 42,
19:0243-inch vertical
19:02and didn't mind showing it.
19:04In UNLV,
19:06they were sponsored by Nike.
19:08Sonny was our rep.
19:10Sonny Vancaro,
19:11he was the UNLV rep,
19:12so I knew Sonny.
19:14I think I've been
19:15in Sonny's house before.
19:16I don't know
19:16if we get in trouble for that.
19:17But, uh,
19:18Sonny was a Larry Johnson fan.
19:20So, in my mind,
19:22I always thought Nike.
19:24With the first pick,
19:26the Charlotte Hornets select
19:28Larry Johnson
19:29from University of Nevada,
19:31Las Vegas.
19:33I was drafted number one,
19:34so I thought,
19:35hey,
19:35I know my Nike contract coming.
19:37Like a week later,
19:39the Kimbe gets a Nike contract.
19:41And Kenny Anderson
19:43was drafted too,
19:44and he ended up
19:44getting a Nike contract.
19:46So I ended up seeing
19:47these guys that went up
19:48under me
19:48start getting contracts.
19:50My agent,
19:51he was just real slow
19:52when I asked about
19:53my Nike contract.
19:54And at one point,
19:55he just starts telling me,
19:56call Sonny,
19:57call Sonny.
19:58So I finally called Sonny.
20:00You know,
20:02Sonny,
20:02yeah,
20:03I could tell he was down.
20:04He was like,
20:04I learned, learned.
20:06Man,
20:06I gotta tell you,
20:08Nike don't think
20:08you're gonna be
20:09a good NBA player.
20:13Yeah,
20:14he messes with me
20:14a little bit
20:15that Nike would think that,
20:16but being an undersized
20:18power forward,
20:19a lot of people
20:19were saying that.
20:21And if you go look
20:22at every program
20:23at UNLV,
20:24even from my junior year
20:25to the senior year,
20:26every game we played,
20:27I was always 6L.
20:28I was always 6L.
20:30Larry Johnson,
20:306'7",
20:312'5".
20:31I remember reading
20:32the program,
20:33we played Temple
20:34in Philly.
20:35And I'm in the locker room
20:36looking at the program,
20:37they said,
20:37Larry Johnson,
20:386'9".
20:38I said,
20:39ooh,
20:396'9",
20:40you know.
20:42There's a rookie combine
20:43that you go to,
20:44they take your official
20:45height and official weight.
20:47And I came out
20:476'5 and a half.
20:51Here is a young man
20:52from Dallas,
20:53Texas,
20:53who grew up,
20:55as someone said,
20:56it's as though
20:56the worst parts
20:57of the ghettos in America
20:58had moved to the
20:59neighborhood he grew up
21:00and he had to battle
21:00his way out of there
21:01to go to college.
21:02Now his dream
21:03is about to come true.
21:04He's going to sign
21:05for millions of dollars.
21:06Is he big enough
21:06to play power forward
21:07in the NBA?
21:08That was going out.
21:09You know,
21:10Nike thought that.
21:11And it's been
21:12a pretty tough struggle,
21:13but I made it.
21:15So what are you gonna do
21:15for the Charlotte Hornets?
21:16Well,
21:17I'm gonna go in.
21:17I'm gonna basically...
21:18Nike had a roster
21:20of the best athletes
21:22across a range
21:24of sports
21:24at that time.
21:26They already had
21:27these commitments
21:28with other athletes
21:29and for Larry Johnson,
21:30they were unable
21:32to make him
21:33the kind of promise
21:34that Converse
21:35could offer him.
21:40Converse
21:40was in bankruptcy
21:41at the time.
21:43Converse
21:43was an iconic brand,
21:45but it was in free fall.
21:47It was not seen
21:48as cool
21:49or fashionable
21:50or that the best
21:51athletes wore it.
21:53It's hard
21:54to build a brand
21:56that sustains
21:57and it's almost impossible
21:59to bring a brand back.
22:03Converse was run
22:04by a bunch
22:05of lovely
22:06six-foot-six
22:08white guys
22:08who all played
22:09college basketball.
22:11And they,
22:12deeply in their hearts,
22:14believed that Nike
22:14was a fly-by-night
22:15organization
22:16and would go
22:17out of business.
22:19They thought
22:20they knew
22:21the marketplace
22:22and they didn't.
22:24And that's
22:24how I walked
22:25in the door.
22:27I'm actually
22:28kind of shocked
22:28in retrospect
22:29that they hired me.
22:30You know,
22:31women were not
22:31usually hired also
22:32for those roles
22:33at the time.
22:34And I knew nothing
22:35about basketball
22:36as a marketing person.
22:38So I think
22:39I was a desperation move.
22:41Reebok and Nike
22:42were really
22:42at the forefront.
22:45So for Larry Johnson,
22:47Converse could
22:48legitimately go
22:49and say,
22:49Larry,
22:50you will be our guy.
22:53Converse came
22:54to Rich and I,
22:55my partner,
22:55Rich Herstach.
22:56They said,
22:57hey,
22:57we want to sign
22:58Larry Johnson.
23:00They said,
23:01we need some ideas
23:02to put him
23:02over the fence
23:03and get him
23:04onto Converse
23:04because he's
23:05the type of future
23:06that we want.
23:07He got Reebok
23:10with Streetball
23:11and Nike's
23:12kicking your ass
23:14every day.
23:15So they needed
23:16some lightning bolts.
23:22A month after
23:22I was drafted,
23:23we was at Converse.
23:26We went and sat down
23:27with the president
23:27and marketing people.
23:30So I was like,
23:31all right,
23:31all right,
23:32what y'all want to do?
23:32They were like,
23:35man,
23:36not only do we want
23:36to pay you
23:36a million dollars a year,
23:37we want to put you
23:38in a commercial
23:38your first year.
23:39I was like,
23:40what?
23:41I was 21 at the time
23:42and their advertisement
23:43guys was my age
23:45or a little bit less.
23:47I mean,
23:47just some two young
23:48white guys.
23:49They said,
23:50man,
23:50we got this idea
23:51for a commercial.
23:52I was like,
23:53okay, okay.
23:53And they like,
23:54I checked this
23:54commercial out.
23:57We're going to
23:57put you on a gurney.
23:58We're going to
23:59cover you up.
23:59You can't be seen
24:00in Magic Johnson
24:02and Larry Bird
24:03is going to be
24:03the doctors.
24:05They're going to
24:05be operating on him.
24:07They asked for a scapel,
24:09all this old good stuff.
24:10And after about
24:1015, 20 seconds,
24:11they said,
24:11ah, we finished.
24:13The perfect basketball player.
24:15And then one of them
24:16said,
24:16well, we got to name him.
24:18Larry said,
24:18well, if we're going
24:19to name him,
24:19his name got to be Larry.
24:21And Magic said,
24:21no, Johnson,
24:23Larry, Johnson,
24:24Larry, Johnson.
24:25And then I raise up.
24:27I never say a word.
24:28I just raise up
24:29when they go back
24:29and forth
24:30for Larry Johnson,
24:30Larry Johnson.
24:31I just raise up.
24:32Everybody see me
24:33into the commercial.
24:36I'm like,
24:36ooh, that's sweet.
24:38That's sweet.
24:38I signed that day.
24:40I signed with Converse
24:41that day
24:41on everything
24:42they was telling.
24:44They gave me
24:44a million dollar bonus.
24:46Three, four days later,
24:47I bought my mom
24:47a house
24:48with a million dollar bonus,
24:49so it was gone.
24:50Three, four months later,
24:51and I'm asking
24:52about these commercials.
24:54I'm calling my age,
24:54what about that commercial?
24:55What about that commercial?
24:56Like, all Converse
24:57are going to get back with us.
24:58They're going to get back with us.
24:59It would be easy
25:01to understand
25:02how a young man
25:03like Larry Johnson
25:04with so much talent
25:06he needed something
25:07out of the box
25:07to break through.
25:09It was going to be very hard
25:11to develop his own brand.
25:14And so there was a ton
25:15of pressure on the team
25:16and on Pete and Rich.
25:18And I'm sure
25:20they would tell you
25:21there were tons
25:22of storyboards
25:22they put in front of me
25:23that, like I said, no.
25:25They went back
25:26to the drawing board.
25:30So we got to work,
25:32had a bunch of ideas.
25:34It's for this new shoe
25:35called the Aeroglide.
25:37And it was the lightest shoe
25:38that Converse ever made.
25:40Let's just play
25:41with the whole thing.
25:42And it was a simple idea.
25:43These shoes are so light
25:44and so fast,
25:45my grandmother
25:46could beat you in them.
25:46It's kind of going
25:49after Nike
25:50in a way
25:51with a bigger gun.
25:52We got to be disruptive
25:53and weird.
25:54We got to come
25:54out of left field.
25:58Taking this huge
26:00basketball player
26:01and putting him
26:02in a dress,
26:03granny glasses,
26:05it was pretty out
26:06of the box
26:06and it was pretty risky.
26:08And for Larry Johnson,
26:10it would be easy
26:11to have him
26:12completely throw
26:14that idea out the door.
26:16They said,
26:17Pete,
26:18you're going to go
26:18to sell it to Larry Johnson.
26:19I was like,
26:20well, what do you mean?
26:20There's always
26:21a business person with me.
26:22There's always
26:23an account guy.
26:24There's always like
26:25three or four people.
26:26This time it's like,
26:27yeah, no,
26:28just Pete.
26:28When I got on set
26:31for the commercial,
26:32I'm looking around
26:33for Larry,
26:33imagine,
26:34when is Larry,
26:34imagine going to get here?
26:35Where are we doing this at?
26:37When I get to the trailer,
26:38I see an old dress
26:39hanging up with,
26:40with a wig,
26:43an old wig,
26:44and I'm like,
26:45oh, who's wearing all this?
26:46Why is this in my trailer?
26:48He comes over,
26:49hey, nice to meet you.
26:50How are you doing?
26:51I was like,
26:52wow, he's a lot bigger
26:53in person.
26:55So I said,
26:55hey, Larry,
26:56I want to take you
26:57through the creative idea.
26:59I said,
27:00these new shoes
27:01are so light
27:01and so fast
27:02that your grandmother
27:04can beat the crap
27:05out of anybody
27:06in the NBA.
27:07You're going to play
27:08your grandmother.
27:09We are going to dress you up
27:12like this.
27:14And he looks at it,
27:15and there's this
27:16total pause.
27:18I said to them then,
27:20I said,
27:20man, if I had that
27:21million dollars,
27:21I'd give it back to y'all.
27:23I'm like,
27:23oh, y'all killing me, man.
27:24Y'all killing me.
27:25I'm like,
27:25y'all want me to put this
27:26on and go out here
27:27and dump?
27:28They're like,
27:28yeah, man.
27:31Then the first shoot
27:32we did,
27:33we did it in Dallas, Texas.
27:34So my mom was there.
27:37So now I'm walking
27:38down looking like this.
27:39She's having a ball.
27:40She's chuckling so much.
27:42You'd have thought
27:42I was Richard Pryor
27:43the way she was
27:43busting the gut.
27:46Action.
27:47They're so light
27:47and so fast,
27:48my grandma might
27:49can whoop you in them.
27:50Working with Larry
27:52to kind of develop
27:54the persona
27:54of Grandma Ma
27:55is really, really hard.
27:58But Larry's
27:58a really, really nice guy.
28:00And they got
28:01through that day.
28:03It was a weekend.
28:04It was a Saturday.
28:05And my patron went off.
28:07And so I called
28:13and was told
28:15that Magic had just
28:17found out
28:17he was HIV positive.
28:19And he was reaching out
28:21to ask his sponsors
28:22if they were going
28:23to support him or not.
28:24Hurry up, please.
28:25At the time,
28:28HIV was thought
28:29to only happen
28:30for people who were gay.
28:33The fact that
28:34the star athlete
28:36could contract AIDS
28:37was unfathomable.
28:38There was a ton of fear.
28:40You know,
28:40it was shocking
28:42at the time
28:43and devastating.
28:45First of all,
28:46let me say good afternoon.
28:46Good afternoon.
28:47Late afternoon.
28:48Because of
28:51the HIV virus
28:55that I have
28:55attained,
28:57I will
28:58have to retire
28:59from the Lakers
29:00today.
29:04I remember
29:05I was shocked,
29:06first of all.
29:08And I thought,
29:09oh my God,
29:09this is somebody
29:11who's an athlete
29:13on the gigantic stage
29:15that he was on.
29:16And Larry was suffering
29:18from back issues, too.
29:21So Converse
29:22was looking at
29:23their two pillars,
29:24Larry Bird
29:25and Magic Johnson,
29:26not being
29:27two big pillars anymore.
29:31Brands could have
29:32cut Magic,
29:33I guess,
29:34but Converse
29:35says,
29:36no,
29:36we've got to
29:36stick behind them.
29:37And they created
29:37a Magic's Athletes
29:39Against AIDS Foundation.
29:41And we started
29:42doing work on that,
29:44which was very
29:45authentic,
29:46and also somber,
29:47because at that time,
29:49boy,
29:50it was everywhere.
29:52And everyone
29:53was very afraid of it.
29:56You know,
29:57people with AIDS
29:57and HIV
29:58aren't faceless
29:59strangers anymore.
30:00They are our family,
30:02friends,
30:02and partners.
30:03We have learned
30:04that this virus
30:04can affect anyone,
30:06especially teenagers.
30:08One side of Converse
30:09was trying to help Magic,
30:11and on the other side
30:12is we've got
30:13this crazy,
30:15risky commercial
30:16for the number one
30:17draft pick
30:17at a time
30:19when their
30:20largest endorser
30:21had announced
30:22something really terrible.
30:23I always feel
30:26this sense of fear.
30:27It's a fear of failure
30:28or, like,
30:29what have I done?
30:32We put the number one
30:33most badass
30:34college player
30:35in a dress.
30:36Am I going to lose
30:37my job?
30:39Am I out of my
30:40fucking mind?
30:40Am I out of my
31:10I'm out of my
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