Jordan's son to wear Nikes on Adidas team
Michael Jordan's son Marcus, a freshman guard at the University of Central Florida, wants to wear his dad's Nike Air Jordan sneakers. In Chemistry 101, that's probably fine. On the court, however, it's a problem, as Adidas has a six-year, $3 million contract with the university to outfit its athletes across all of its sports. "It's a level of importance with the Jordan Brand and my family," the player says. "It's no disrespect to Adidas. I have a high level of respect for adidas, but I'm going to be wearing Jordan shoes. I'm wearing the Adidas uniform and all my other UCF gear is Adidas, but the shoes are going to be Jordan Brand." According to the Associated Press, the university is working with Adidas to determine "how this unique set of circumstances will work for both parties." Given the inordinate amount of free publicity the "controversy" is generating for both brands, I'd say those circumstances are working just fine so far. UPDATE: It looks like Adidas is pulling its $3 million from UCF over the sneaker flap. Maybe Mike Sr. will step up to the line and foot the bill. If the school offers to rename its athletic center after MJ, the surly egomaniac might even be a sport and pony up $3 million per foot. Well, not Pony exactly... —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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October 26, 2009 in Adidas, Controversy, Footwear, Gianatasio, Nike | Permalink |
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UCF is not a sports powerhouse, and for Jordan to be playing here says that his father's hoop skills were not passed down to him, though apparently the arrogance gene is fully intact.
Posted by: Jetpacks | Oct 26, 2009 10:32:05 AM
I think that he has a point and should be allowed to wear what he wants, just not at UCF. I'm not happy about wearing a suit at work, I can choose not to, but it would be elsewhere.
Posted by: Roy | Oct 26, 2009 2:38:10 PM
There are schools just as athletically mediocre as UCF that are contracted to Nike/Jordan. If he doesn't like the rules, he doesn't have to play - simple as. But hey, when your dad is who he is and worth a few hundred million, I guess you can afford to throw that kind of weight around.
I'm betting UCF is caving so they can use this to try and leverage a new Jordan brand deal when the Adidas contract expires next year.
Posted by: Mike | Oct 27, 2009 12:50:59 AM
