Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller talked with a runner for a sports agent about making a $100,000 payment for Deandre Ayton to play.
Source: Report: Arizona coach Sean Miller discussed making payment for Deandre Ayton to play
Last year when the FBI’s investigation into the pay to play scandal on high level prospects entering the NBA started, I wrote a post not on the “scandal” but on adidas and why the scandal wouldn’t hurt the brand. In the last day I’ve had execs write me to say this is huge and will be a big blow against Nike. My thoughts on Avenatti and his evidence against Nike is exactly the same as my thoughts on adidas last year:
In the post above I wrote these words, “adidas is not being hurt by this NCAA case. They are just the only ones to get caught, for the moment.” Note that I said for the moment. I played JUCO basketball, not D-1, but at my JUCO we had high major players who left D-1 programs to play at the JUCO. This happens at many JUCOs and the stories that arrive with those players are the same ones everyone involved in basketball has heard, players get paid. Hell in high school there is evidence of player movement and influence that has to be investigated every year by high school associations.
In some shape, form or fashion I’ve been invovled with basketball at every level:
- NFHS Certified Coach
- High School Head Coach
- JUCO Assistant
- NCAA Certified Camp Coordinator
- College Scout and Recruiter (NJCAA, NAIA, D-3, D-2, D-1) and apparel manufacturer for 9 colleges
I can write a list of the players I’ve sent to college, or assisted in going to college, and while many names aren’t known, some play in the NBA,and internationally. Others are now themselves college coaches. In other words when I write about sneakers and kicks I’m not writing as an insider for the sneaker industry. I’m writing as a former basketball insider.
When the Netflix documentary At All Costs was released, two of my assistant coaches were in the documentary because they both ran programs based out of San Diego. One on the girls side (Mahlon Williams who is the father of one of the highest rated basketball players in the country) and one on the boys side (Jerome Sherman).
In short, I’m not new to the industry and business of basketball. When the phone call arrived yesterday I had already been notified about Avenatti’s tweets and I told the reporter that it meant nothing at all to the sneaker community. Basketball isn’t even the focus of sneaker culture like it once was. Kids who are reading the major sneaker sites are more interested in the next big retro release than they are any information about Deandre Ayton who is on a non-playoff NBA team and wearing shoes from a brand that is only relevant because of Rihanna. When I was asked if I thought this would hurt Nike’s stock prices, I said, “Of course, everything hurts stocks prices it seems, but this won’t have any lasting affects.”
When the phone rang again it was from an exec who was stressing that this would be explosive for Nike. I again said I don’t think so.
Nike was involved with payments to college players according to Avenati. His evidence revealed so far Bol Bol at Oregon and Ayton at Arizona last year. Everyone already knew about Arizona, and Bol Bol is injured and hasn’t really played much this year and I’m willing to bet, like Ayton, Bol Bol will not be signed by Nike. So let’s really think about this… Nike paid for two guys to go to Nike colleges.
Good things:
- Parents got some dough
- School got some dough
- Kids got some dough
Bad things:
- Kids broke NCAA rules
- School broke NCAA rules
- Nike needs to pay fines
- Nike needs to fire their marketing department
Michael Avenatti introduced information at a critical marketing point for Nike. The goal was to possibly extort the company. Is Nike a crappy company for paying college players? No. Should Nike’s stock take a tumble? That’s not really my field, but I’ve seen the stock tumble for less. Will Nike make some changes? Definitely, because whoever paid Ayton and Bol Bol was stupid as hell. Big men don’t sell shoes which is why Ayton may have been paid to play at Arizona, but Nike didn’t even attempt to sign him to a sneaker deal. I have to imagine that Bol Bol won’t be signed to a lucrative deal of any sort either.
Why am I writing this post? It’s a response to anyone wondering what I think about this “scandal”. It’s not a scandal. If you’ve been following this site for any amount of time you know that I’m a huge proponent of Nike (or anyone) finding a way to disrupt the NCAA. I wrote this post a few years ago:
Could Nike Be Looking To Rival the NCAA Soon? | The PK80 Basketball Tourney
Last season the PK80 wasn’t played. In the post above I discussed that the PK80 could begin bumping teams from early season tourneys. Penny Hardaway is now the coach of the U of Memphis. The PK 80 will be back next season. You know what just happened? The U of M just pulled out of a longstanding obligation to play in a beginning of the season tourney for the 19-20 season. They are on course to have the number one recruting class in the country.
I wrote a post on the Pac Pro league that included reports on Zion being the best endorser of adidas basketball than any of the brands’ roster of pro athletes:
My point is, this information on Avenatti will become great fodder for blogs and journalists. Nike will be talked about as being corrupt and bad for amatuer athletics, but ultimately nothing will happen. As I write this AAU teams are gearing up for a spring and summer of travel. High level teams are still getting funded. It’s a bit more above the table, but the money is still there. Nike was never clean, but it doesn’t matter because unless they hire a smarter basketball marketing group they will continue to overspend on players going to Nike schools. Just like adidas and Under Armour will overspend on schools and players. Some will be busted and some won’t be.
At the end of the day the most important aspect of all of this could be that Nike will maybe look at hiring better people who have a real voice about how basketball marketing should be done. Maybe that is the only important aspect of all of this.
