I attended a speech Wednesday night by Sonny Vaccaro, the former top NBA guru for Nike, Adidas and Reebok. Vaccaro is best known for negotiating multi-million dollar shoe deals with top NBA stars including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In essence, he's the man that many people say is responsible for the almost inseparable relationship between NBA players and their shoes.
But Vaccaro no longer works for the shoe companies. At 68, he's making a series of speeches at colleges around the country to speak out against what he perceives as discriminatory and possibly illegal policies by the NBA and NCAA.
Vaccaro spoke for about 75 minutes before about 200 students of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Many of the students are enrolled in a new sports management program tied to the school's Undergraduate Fellows Program.
Vaccaro's speech basically had two parts: a summation of his professional life and a harsh criticism of the NCAA and NBA.
Some highlights:
- Vaccaro reiterated his arguments against the NBA's new age limit, calling it "arbitrary and unlawful. ... It's pathetic that we would deprive an individual from earning a living."
- Vaccaro called the NCAA "the most fraudulent organization that ever lived." He got particularly animated when speaking about the NCAA's broadcasting of old game footage without compensating players for using their likeness. "What gives them the to use my image forever?" he asked.
- He says that when working for Nike in 1984, he convinced company executives to throw all of their money at Michael Jordan, rather than spread it around to three or more players who were turning pro. (The 1984 draft also featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley, among others.) "I said, 'you're missing it. You're supposed to give it all to Jordan."
- Early on in his Nike career, Vaccaro came up with the idea of outfitting coaches and teams. Nike executives told him to give it a try, but to "try it out with someone he trusted." He quickly signed a deal with Jerry Tarkanian.
- Vaccaro called Kobe Bryant "the most dedicated, most gifted athlete I've ever seen" and "the most driven sucker I've ever seen."
- Vaccaro was with Adidas when LeBron James turned pro, and knew that Nike would offer an enormous amount to the much-hyped star. Adidas, he said, didn't believe James was worth that much. "Adidas didn't want to push the envelope," he said. Vaccaro quit Adidas after James signed with Nike for $90 million.
I had the chance to meet Vaccaro briefly after his speech and conducted this Q&A:
Q: So how come you're here in this lecture hall instead of over at Comcast Center talking to Gary Williams and his team? I imagine you wouldn't be here if you were still working for Nike.
A: No, I wouldn't. That's why I quit. Because I wanted to be in this position. I went to Harvard and I went to Yale before this, and I'm going ot other business schools and law schools. And I did that because I wanted to do this. Because I wanted to tell the students and the public that this is the world, and these kids have to know about it. Because they are the ones that will be making the decisions. I wanted to show them the big business of sports, college sports. Athletes, they just participate in it. It wouldn't mean anything and they couldn't make change anyway. These kids (pointing to the students in the room) are going to have a different perspective. If I'm going to get after the league on the age thing, or get after the NCAA and their right to keep selling these game forever and ever. These kids can best get my message out. You wouldn't have come if I was talking to the basketball team, and I knew that.
Q: There are two high-profile guys drafted this year that spent one year in college last year though they probably could have been drafted out of high school, Kevin Durant and Greg Oden. They've been drafted and got big money. Some might ask, what was the harm in them going to school, since everything worked out okay for them?
A: Only because you can say everything worked out okay for them. What if it hadn't worked out ok for them? Now, I'm not saying that isn't true, but I'm saying no one else had the right to make that decision.
Q: Is it tough to argue against the age limit when the union actually agreed to it?
A: Sure, they did. I can't fight it, so what I'm trying to get done is that at the next collective bargaining agreement they give second though to it. I'm talking about the future, I'm talking about the kid that doesn't even know we're talking about it.
Q: You talked a lot about how much money these schools are pulling in from athletics while the athletes aren't seeing any of it. What would you advocate..some sort of compensation program for these players? Would you eliminate the concept of amateur athletics altogether?
A: My basic premise is that at the top level, it's not amateurism. Take the BCS...it's basically a lottery for playing for $14 million in the National Championship game. When they made it a lottery, I said to them "it's nothing more than a business." Why don't they have 50 schools playing and give them all $25? And the very fact that they spread it out over 14 games, and then saying 'we can't have a tournament because of the academic schedule,' that's bull****. And it's fraudulent, because six people from six schools basically control the BCS. Morgan State can't make it. Appalachian State, even they went undefeated, would have been precluded from even having a chance to win the lottery. And that's not fair."
Q: So if I'm a athlete, what's the future? Will I eventually get paid to play?
A: No, I don't advocate just paying someone $1,000 a week. What I advocate now is that if a kid makes it through your school and he plays on one of your revenue-producing sports--and I'm talking about revenue-producing sports, ok? I'm very cold-blooded about that--then if he graduates we give the kid a stipend. Maybe $20,00, I don't know. But it's like "thank you, this will help you in your first year. This will help you get started in your new life. I'm more worried about the guys that don't go pro. It's not like I'm going to give Greg Oden any money if he goes to the pros, but I might give it to that guy on the football team. Those guys don't get anything. They practice just as hard. They do all the hard things the other guys do and they get nothing. And some of them aren't even on scholarships.
Q: Are you personally a fan of college sports?
A: All my life. I still root for Joe Paterno. I'm a Pittsburgh italian kid. I enjoy it, yes I do. I love Southern Cal football. I love the purity of sport. Sport is good.
Q: Who's your favorite athlete?
A: I don't want to go there because there's so many kids, but I'll you the one who I think is the most naturally gifted is Tracy McGrady. Tracy doesn't work as hard--and you should put this in your story--as some of the others. Tracy was given more ability than anybody. He didn't always use it.
Q: Do you still lose sleep over not getting LeBron James for Adidas?
A: No. I've been able to accept that. That's why I quit. Once I didn't get him, I thought 'it's over.' But if you ask if lost sleep, no, but Adidas should never be able to sleep for the rest of their life. You can quote me on that.
Q: Was there ever a guy who you dealt with on any level who you told to go to college?
A: No. If he had the opportunity to be drafted I never said that. He might have gone, but I've advocated putting money in your pocket.
