Interesting Nico Harrison Info

[Shem]

This video does an interesting breakdown on Nico Harrison's history.

Watch on YouTube

[41Dirk41]

PELINKA AND HARRISON'S relationship dates to the summer of 2003, when both were ambitious young executives who had earned the trust of a then-25-year-old Kobe Bryant. Bryant had left his longtime agent Arn Tellem in March 2002 and convinced Pelinka, then a junior executive at Tellem's company SFX, to leave with him.

He was also a sneaker free agent after his contract with Adidas had lapsed. Rather than re-sign with the company immediately, Bryant chose to open up the process. He'd wear Nikes one night, Reeboks another, all trying to froth the market after he'd helped the Lakers win their third championship in a row.

Nike was focused on a high schooler named LeBron James at the time and put its A-team on the case.

Harrison, then a junior executive in his mid-20s, was tasked with recruiting Bryant. He attended every home game that year, but Bryant mostly ignored him. Eventually his persistence paid off, and in the summer of 2003, Harrison and Pelinka closed a five-year, $40 million deal for Bryant to join Nike

Their relationship was soon put to the test when Bryant was accused of rape by a woman in Colorado that September. Prosecutors eventually dropped their case against Bryant, who settled a civil suit with a financial payment and an apology, without admitting fault.

Over the next decade Pelinka and Harrison traveled the world together with Bryant on official Nike business and joint family vacations. They were members of Bryant's inner circle, and they leaned on each other when Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash in 2020.

All of which is prologue to why Harrison only felt comfortable discussing the biggest gamble of his professional career with Pelinka.

If the league don't investigate this time he will never do it...