Monday Bullets

Tag : jordan nike

Who's ready to play in the NBA? Shan Foster is so ready he has burst into song . Larry Bird is starting to get famous . Team USA is announced . Nate Jones points out that it's a near clean sweep for athletes who wear the shoes ofNike or a subsidiary. Nike sponsors Team USA. Michael Lee of the Washington Post says Gilbert Arenas was right : "All the talk about having a national program of 33 players andforcing them to make a three-year commitment to the program,participate in summer workouts, then tryout for the team in anintense training camp process seems laughable now. Two weeks ago,USA Managing Director Jerry Colangelo scrapped plans to inviteabout 15 or 16 players to Las Vegas to cut the team down to 12. Itwas sort of sneaked in during the NBA Finals, so nobody made a bigdeal about it. I think this team wins the gold, but I can't arguewith Gilbert: It looks like Team USA knew what it wanted allalong." CNBC's Darren Rovell addresses the reality that no player from the 2008 draft class yet has a shoe deal. Ihave heard several stories of agents asking for Kevin Durant money,only to find it is not available. Rovell explains how the markethas been changing: "The basketball shoe market is down from the$4.5 billion the market was at when Nike signed LeBron. Powell saysthis year basketball shoes will gross in the $2.5 billion range.Then consider how dominant Nike is. Adding up Nike, Converse andthe Jordan business, Nike has a 93 percent share of the basketballshoe market, the largest take of any shoe business by one company.And finally, consider this. Michael Jordan is still Nike's bestendorser by a mile. Powell says sales of the Jordan brand make up alarger percentage of the overall shoe business than they ever have.For every three pairs bought in this country, two of them (67percent) are the Jordan brand. Nike has a 24 percent share, adidashas a 4 percent share and Converse has a 2.5 percent share. Giventhese numbers, you can imagine what it would take for Nike to forkover big bucks when they already have a basic monopoly on thebusiness. And you can imagine how marketable a certain player wouldhave to be in order for adidas to jump at him. Five years ago, thepower was in the hands of the players and the agents." ESPN's Chad Ford just published a new mock draft . He mentions a potential Portland/Memphis trade: "... the No. 13pick and the expiring contract of Raef LaFrentz to Memphis for No.5, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins." I'm getting e-mail fromreaders in Portland every few minutes claiming this is alreadydone, but am assured that is not so. Whom would the Blazers selectif they could get the fifth pick? Insiders are all over the map.Russell Westbrook, Joe Alexander, and O.J. Mayo have all beenmentioned. (For what it's worth, John Hollinger's projections consider Westbrook a marginal prospect .) On a related note, Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star writes : "Pacers president Larry Bird had hoped Westbrook would visitTuesday after not working out for them because of an injury lastweek. That plan got scrapped because I've been told Westbrook hasbeen given a 'promise' by a team picking higher than the Pacers.I'm not sure which team has given Westbrook the 'promise.' Wouldn'tit be something if Donnie Walsh took the player his former team hashad its eye on for some time?" The players who will be invited to the Green Room on draft night:Joe Alexander (West Virginia), Darrell Arthur (Kansas), DJ Augustin(Texas), Jerryd Bayless (Arizona), Michael Beasley (Kansas State),Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Eric Gordon (Indiana), DeAndre Jordan(Texas A&M), Brook Lopez (Stanford), Robin Lopez (Stanford),Kevin Love (UCLA). OJ Mayo (USC), Anthony Randolph (LSU), DerrickRose (Memphis), Brandon Rush (Kansas), Russell Westbrook (UCLA). USA Today's Reid Cherner and Tom Weir on the Lance Armstrong of the 2008 NBA Draft, Tennessee's ChrisLofton: "Projected before the season as a first rounder, he battledtesticular cancer which was not known until the completion of theyear. As a second-rounder or a free agent, this is a guy worthputting a few marbles on. He is a long range shooter who can gethis own shot. You can believe the tapes from his junior or hissenior year and then make your decision." I have been saying for ages that some top high-school graduatewould bypass the NCAA and all its rules for the nice income andsound skill development of Europe. Brandon Jennings, having sometrouble qualifying to play for Arizona, is reportedly noodling with the idea . Plenty of people seem to think that the Golden State Warriors like Jason Thompson , a big man with some perimeter skills. Thompson is a former AAUteammate of Dajuan Wagner, but back then he was not nearly as tall,and played on the wing. Getting to know rebound rates , and finding some measures by which Leon Powe is one of the bestplayers in the NBA. A pretty amazing roundup of what's going on with the Nets . An excellent explanation of why Portland is likely to make a trade or two before long, fromDave at BlazersEdge. Essentially, if the team stands pat, the caproom they have worked so hard to get next summer could be eaten upby cap holds for Martell Webster, Channing Frye, and Jarrett Jack.If Portland is going to get a big-time free agent next summer, andthe roster remains as is, those players are still on the roster,they will have to be cut, traded, or signed to reasonable new dealsbefore Portland can make a move. Also, I would not be surprised ifPortland spends some or all of that cap space in advance, byacquiring a veteran between now and the trade deadline. Mark Cuban vs. the Olympics . Candace Parker dunks in a WNBA game . It's the second such dunk in league history, but I suspect thefirst of many for Parker. Eric Musselman thinks NBA teams should spend more time talking tocollege coaches about draft prospects. UPDATE: In Oklahoma City, the Sonics owners have said the team willhave a strong economic impact. In court in Seattle, their expertshave argued that teams like the Sonics have no impact, and could infact hurt their host city. A TV news report from Oklahoma City describing the situation.