Man, some sneakerheads (or maybe it’s just some of the folks in this thread?) have a seriously uninformed/unintelligent understanding of how these things work.
What money did Nike “rob” Kyrie of, exactly?
If anything, Kyrie’s lucky that Nike didn’t terminate him sooner. Like, in what other context could you envision an employee/contractor/spokesman publicly **** talking their company’s product the way Kyrie did with the Infinity without suffering any repercussions?
It’s really quite simple - these deals all have clauses that clearly state each party’s obligations. If the athlete violates the terms of their contract and/or fails to fulfill their obligations under the contract (and that results in the termination of the deal), they are not being “robbed” of anything - they’re merely suffering the consequences of their actions.
And just as an aside (re: the gif you used) - Kyrie is a lot of things (including a supremely gifted and talented athlete), but he is most certainly not “very smart”.