Two things 1. We now see why lance is getting blackballed somewhat and 2. Nike is lying all the sneaker companies have done this. U play the game to win hello..... There is way way way more to this story but it is a good thing it came out. The NCAA is a joke and I have said it before they are a big reason why st.johns ain't back yet
I was glad the Washington Post, which just may be the best in the country, shined the spotlight on the situation.
My two favorite quotes:
1)
Regardless of the company's intent,
Vaccaro, who has worked for Nike, Adidas and Reebok,
concedes Under Armour's affiliation with the school gives Maryland a recruiting advantage with players the company has targeted as prospective clients. "I think that is true," Vaccaro said. "It's like when [Nike's] Phil Knight turned me loose in the 1970s and 1980s. I did it, and he okayed it. Somebody had to get Lance down there. Kevin [Plank] didn't bring him down. . . .
"You can do things by implying without saying. If they know you are my friend, why would they not trust you? That's the advantage you get. Once Nike had every school in America, it was not that hard." 2)
"To be honest with you, we really don't care for the sneaker. The sneaker sucks."-Stretch Stephenson
Whats really funny is read the comments on this article how pissed off all the Maryland fans are. I honestly didn't think the article was an attack on Maryland but rather a pretty good piece on how things go down with these big companies. I think Maryland fans are just upset their spot got blown up because they know its true.
Pretty funny how Lance got left off Jordan game and pretty funny how he is interested in Maryland. Question though why doesn't Nike try and push people to St. John's we're in a mega market. Has the Jim Keady hangover still put us out of favor with the swoosh?
Apparently, Eric Prisbell, one of the authors, got an enormous amount of hate and boycott threatening e-mails today.
You bring up a good point about Nike. USC and Nike share a great, mutually beneficial relationship in the second biggest market. One would think they'd love to have a major sports program in the biggest media market in the country and might hint to a player or two to give St. John's a look. The Nike/Riverside/St. John's pipeline was great, but short-lived for us.