The basketball game Nike and Adidas didn't ever want to see finally happened and it was fantastic
Let's hope the best Nike and Adidas teams will play each other more often in the future
By
Gary Parrish
•
4 min read
LAS VEGAS -- People say it every summer -- how awesome it would be if the best Nike-sponsored team would play the best Adidas-sponsored team late in July in what could serve as a de facto national title game for grassroots basketball.
But it never happens.
Or, at least, it almost never happens.
"It's very rare," said Dinos Trigonis, co-director of the Las Vegas Fab 48.
And why is it very rare?
"Because the shoe companies don't want it to happen," Trigonis answered matter-of-factly. And evidence of this came exactly eight days ago, when the following Twitter exchange took place.
Not going to happen
— Jamal James (@mavjjames) July 17, 2018
What you need to know about that exchange is that Frank Burlison is a longtime grassroots basketball scout who dared to publicly suggest it would be tremendous if Team Takeover, which had just won the Nike EYBL Peach Jam, played the Compton Magic, which had just won the Adidas Summer Championship. Team Takeover finished its Nike schedule with a 23-1 record. The Compton Magic finished its Adidas schedule with a 20-2 record. Those teams were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country among 17-and-under grassroots teams, according to Prep Hoops. So Burlison's tweet was sensible and a summer basketball junkie's dream. And yet, as you can see above, the idea was shot down quickly by Jamal James, who is Nike's Elite Youth Basketball manager.
"Not going to happen," James tweeted.
But it did happen.
Against all odds, it happened late Wednesday here at Bishop Gorman High -- about 12 miles west of the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip. North Carolina's Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams was courtside. Duke's Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski was a few rows behind him. Various NBA players -- everybody from Victor Oladipo to Isaiah Thomas to Will Barton -- were in the building. And even though the game did not tip until 9:36 local time, and even though the price of admission was $15, the gym was still packed from the first row to the top. A capacity crowd showed up and stayed late.
"Best crowd we've played in front of all summer," said Evan Mobley, the immensely gifted Class of 2020 product who led Adidas' Compton Magic to a come-from-behind 81-79 overtime victory over Nike's Team Takeover.
Mobley, by the way, might just be the best longterm NBA prospect in all of high school basketball. He's incredible around the rim and capable away from it. Legs for days. Runs well. A former college coach who worked with him at a camp recently told me this: "He's a monster who is going to make a lot of money."
I agree on both points. But first, barring a surprise, Mobley will play at least one season at USC because Andy Enfield hired his father, Eric Mobley, back in March, and because his older brother, Class of 2019 standout Isaiah Mobley, is already committed to the Trojans. Both brothers are five-star prospects. So it's clear no head coach made a more impactful hire this offseason than Enfield, who sat under a basket late Wednesday and watched his future frontcourt -- five-star big Onyeka Okongwu also plays for the Compton Magic and is also committed to USC -- earn shoe-company bragging rights for the rest of the summer.
Bottom line, this was a fun night.
That the game didn't end until 11:09 p.m. PT on Wednesday, also known 2:09 a.m. ET on Thursday, wasn't ideal -- especially for Team Takeover, which is based in Washington D.C. But it was still a "very rare" matchup that lived up to the hype.
So the question is simple: How did this come together?
Nobody would confirm an appearance fee for either team. But it's reasonable to assume whatever needed to be done to get this done was done, if only because such is pretty normal in grassroots basketball. That said, appearance fees have always been there for the taking. So it obviously took more than that. And multiple industry sources pointed directly to the power Team Takeover president Keith Stevens now holds within Nike.
As history and Jamal James' tweet both show, Nike officials don't have much interest in their high-profile teams doing things like what Team Takeover did Wednesday. They'd prefer their teams not mix company. But Stevens' players wanted to play the game. And Stevens wanted to play the game. And the fact that the game got played indicates Nike ultimately decided to not stand in his way.
"A couple of years ago we had a problem with Merl Code; he was strong-arming teams [into only playing in events he preferred]," Trigonis said about the former director of Nike's youth basketball program who is now facing federal charges for allegedly bribing families to send prospects to certain schools. "So I had a conversation with [Nike executive] Lynn Merritt. I asked him, I said, 'Lynn, do you guys sponsor these teams or do you own these teams?' And he didn't know how to answer that question.
"But Keith has leverage [with Nike]," Trigonis added. "So he has more of an ability to not feel pressured."
Neither Trigonis nor multiple recruiting analysts could actually remember the last time the best Nike-sponsored team played the best Adidas-sponsored team before it happened Wednesday. I know because I asked. Everybody assumes it's happened before. But nobody could remember exactly when -- even if everybody agreed it's definitely been a while.
So here's hoping we don't have to wait a while to see it again.
The shoe companies might not want it, I know.
But the players do.
And the coaches do.
And that should be more than enough.
