Either yours truly is particularly naive or something, because an NYT article on Steve Nash running a basketball camp for select, invitation-only guests in New Jersey to show them his patented offensive skills (obviously, nothing was particularly said regarding defense, wait until Bruce Bowen puts on a camp — like that’ll happen) caught me a bit off guard. It wasn’t necessarily because of a corporate sponsor alone, but for other reasons:
“There’s a lot of talent in this gym,” said Nash, a two-time N.B.A. most valuable player. “It’s a real good group.”
So good, in fact, that they had arrived here by invitation for the camp, which was organized by Nike. For three days, Nash tutored 32 of the nation’s top high school and college point guards on matters like breaking a trap, setting a screen and rolling off a pick. All that was left now was to give them his autograph.
D. J. Augustin, a 5-foot-11 sophomore at Texas, and many of the others described themselves as fans and students of Nash’s game.
“He’s always thinking out there, always a step ahead of everyone else, and he always seems to make the right pass at the right time,” Augustin said.
The boldface in the blockquote is mine. This article is innocuous enough, and to be shocked and appalled that Nike might have something to do with this is to play the naif to a degree which I wouldn’t dare. I’m just wondering how this is kosher with the NCAA. I know the athletes attending don’t directly profit, and it may be safe to say that their athletic departments get them there. However, that can be construed as access to amateur athletes for commercial sponsorships down the road, couldn’t it?
Oh well. Trying to expect anything resembling consistency from the NCAA has been a losing cause. Just the athletic world we live in, isn’t it?
Filed under: NCAA, advertising, college basketball, rules | Tagged: corporations, Steve Nash
Shoe companies have been doing this for years. The ABCD camp is sponsored by Reebok, the logo even says RBK and has the vector on it, and used to be known as the Adidas ABCD Camp.
289 – true. I just wonder why it doesn’t register as that big of a stink with the NCAA — although I think I just came up with the answer, because the schools ink their own shoe deals and no one wants to upset that gravy train either.
test
I’m liking the Knicks right now baby! Hope Randolph tones down the criminal tendencies.
Trust that the Sherron Collins got the most out of Nash’s insight. He gave me a few quotes before and after the Jordan Classic last year. He is one of the most focused kids I’ve ever spoken to.
Nash does his thing in the community. I wish more cats were out there as much.
http://michaeltillery.com/content/brandjordan.htm
It really depends on what this means:
It really depends on what this means:
“the camp, which was organized by Nike”
An important distinction to make here is whether NIKE officials had any actual contact with the players. High school sporting events and clinics across the country have been sponsored by athletic wear manufacturers for years. To the players, however, the sponsoring corporation is usually nothing more than the name on the Tshirt. In the late 80’s and early 90’s Reebok had the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) scene cornered. Almost all of the state-wide championship events had Reebok in their name, but that doesn’t mean Reebok exploited the opportunity to talk with any of the athletes, even at the exclusive events.
Having said all that, I agree that some regulation is required in scenarios like the one described in the article. If by ‘organized the event’ they think it’s OK to slip in a 7 course welcome banquet at the Ritz, and shower the athletes with freebies, then NIKE’s intentions become very suspicious vey quickly.
One good thing is that rising stars have lots of hype around them, and they’re not usually very good at hiding lavish treatment from potential sponsors. It probably wouldn’t take much moer than checking out someone’s MySpace to find out whether they’ve been approached!
Nice article. Thanks.
Steven
interesting
Does anyone have a list of all the PGs that got invited? I’d love to see who was all on that list…mainly, I just want to know if my man Ty Lawson got an invite. UNC is a Nike school, so I’d assume so…either way, I’d love to see the full roster. Nice find in the article, too, by the way.
Mizzo – Collins seems like a young man with his head on straight in that, and also in the little bit in the NYT piece.
Realityonastick – yeah, corporations will put their name all over camps without recruiting; I just think we probably ought to look it with a more wary eye these days.
interesting.