11/05/24
October 18, 2005
No Adidas.: Arkansas State's leading returning scorer, Jerry Nichols, is sitting out because he refuses to wear Adidas shoes, which Indians players are obligated to wear because of a school contract. Nichols was wearing Adidas shoes when he suffered a knee injury in 2001 while playing for Walters State Community College.
posted by jasonspaceman to basketball at 11:05 AM - 21 comments
Using kids as billboards. Yet another reason I can't stand college sports.
posted by HATER 187 at 11:16 AM on October 18, 2005
The link isn't working for me (even when clicked from the ESPN home page). This one is working. Cut some addidas stripes off the shoes, glue them to your Nikes. He'd already taped over the Nike logo. They say no compromise. Universities make millions signing exclusivity contracts with everyone from Pepsi to Nike. I love it that one person can make it backfire so spectacularly that ESPN has a front-page article linking Adidas and knee injuries. Money well spent! Arkansas State looks terrible, too.
posted by dusted at 11:36 AM on October 18, 2005
This is ridiculous. Not only is the university ignoring the legitimate concerns of an athlete about his health, but they're embarrassing Adidas by spreading the perception that the company's shoes lead to injuries. They should have dealt with this quietly and come up with a pretense for him to wear another brand.
posted by rcade at 11:50 AM on October 18, 2005
Sounds like Adidas is getting the free publicity they deserve...Arkansas State too. Who says there is no such thing as bad publicity, huh?
posted by chris2sy at 12:00 PM on October 18, 2005
Funny how all these colleges get to make money on these contracts with shoe companies and the college players can even get a job to make a dime. Man the NBA and the NFL have it going on as well. They get a free farm system.
posted by leeqwst at 12:33 PM on October 18, 2005
ASU's coach belongs in the Unfortunate Name Hall of Fame: Dickey Nutt
posted by holden at 12:51 PM on October 18, 2005
Jimmy Johnson
posted by Turbo at 01:07 PM on October 18, 2005
"ASU coach Dickey Nutt said he wants Nichols on the court, considering the team has its first exhibition in less than three weeks. "I need all my players to be at practice, but it's out of my hands. That matter is in the administration's hands, so I'm just referring all questions to them," Nutt said." Since when does the coach not get a piece of that shoe contract? I thought the big coaches always made the shoe decisions. Why don't they just cut out the colleges and have shoe conferences?
posted by ?! at 01:46 PM on October 18, 2005
I seriously doubt the Adidas shoes caused the injury. I wore Adidas all through my soccer career (don't know why I would call it a career....but I don't know of another word) and got hurt plenty of times. But my injuries were due to weak ankles, lack of strength training that's essential to injury prevention, mage-bitches who are just mean, and my, at times, kamikaze style of playing. I think if you're going to get hurt, you're going to get hurt no matter what shoes you wear. My brother tore is ACL when he was freaken barefoot! He needs to grow up and wear the damn shoes....freaken baby. It's a contract so he's screwing himself because he's not going to make a difference. Oh well. Neither is this blog.
posted by Irish Gal at 04:55 PM on October 18, 2005
Good for the kid, he shouldn't have to wear anyone's shoes just because they have a contract with the school.
posted by fenriq at 04:59 PM on October 18, 2005
Attempting to compare basketball and soccer related injuries is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Let's not forget why "la marque a trois bandes" was started. It sure as hell wasn' t for basketball. Coming down from a header on grass and coming down from a board/jump shot/layup/blocked shot onto a hardword floor are two completely different things. Let the man chose what he wants to protect his ankles with. Adidas makes shitty basketball shoes; they always have.
posted by ocmojo at 06:40 PM on October 18, 2005
i've had a lot of basketball shoes. adidas, converse, fila, reebok, and nike. i wouldn't go so far as to say that adidas makes shitty basketball shoes. but nike does make the best basketball shoes.
posted by rjs76 at 09:55 PM on October 18, 2005
This is ridiculous. I think that the knee injury came from lack of weight training. Although the last T-Mac's were rather heavy. Hell, they felt like boots. That's no excuse for a knee injury. That's why I caution everyone to wear mids or highs for ankle support. NIKE is still ranked #1 in my books.
posted by chieftainpride08 at 10:43 PM on October 18, 2005
this guy should grow up i mean seriously just cuz u got injured in a certain brand of shoes doesn't make you more or less injury prone. He should stop acting like a little sissy and play some hoops
posted by Cheedaleec at 12:12 AM on October 19, 2005
I am not an orthopod, but from what I know of ACL injuries and the most probable mechanism of injury for an ACL injury while playing basketball, I don't see the shoe being a factor unless it had an absurdly unstable design. With that being said, however, it seems like the school's put itself in a bad position here. The shoe may not be an ACL hazard, but what if players find they simply don't work well? Shoes have got to be the most fundamental piece of a hoops player's gear; wouldn't you want your players in the shoes where they felt most comfortable?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:55 AM on October 19, 2005
Player comfort or money? Somehow, I think that decision's already been made at colleges all around the country.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 02:30 PM on October 19, 2005
well, at least one college has decided that comfort/safety comes before $$. (via uni watch)
posted by goddam at 03:17 PM on October 19, 2005
Cool story, goddam.
posted by dusted at 03:54 PM on October 19, 2005
I think New Balance actually takes the engineering aspect of their shoes much more seriously than either Nike or Adidas. New Balance (nothing more than my opinion) has always been more concerened with performance than style, and that's what athletic shoes should be all about: performance.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 05:00 PM on October 19, 2005
exactly, black_hand. they make a damn good shoe. and they seem to deal with sponsorships rather than endorsements.
posted by goddam at 08:03 PM on October 19, 2005
Cut some addidas stripes off the shoes, glue them to your Nikes.