NIKE’s plans for youth basketball
Aggrey Sam’s report on a conference call with Nike’s Global Basketball Sports Marketing Director.
By Aggrey Sam
On Wednesday, I had the chance to be on a conference call with George Raveling, Nike’s Global Basketball Sports Marketing Director, and several reporters. Raveling, if you didn’t know, used to be a college coach (he coached Harold Miner at USC) and is basically the archenemy of Sonny Vaccaro, his ex-best friend who split from Nike back in the day and took his ABCD camp to adidas and now Reebok. For the readers who follow high school basketball, this isn’t new, so bear with me for a second.
Over a month ago, a summit was held with Raveling, Darren Kalish (Raveling’s adidas counterpart) and execs from the NCAA, NBA and USA Basketball to discuss changes to grassroots basketball in the U.S. It’s pretty much been known since then that Nike and adidas wouldn’t be having their traditional elite camps in summer 2007 and beyond and while many rumors were circulating about what would take the place of the camps, nothing concrete was announced.
Anyway, on this conference call, Raveling detailed Nike’s plans for youth basketball, mostly centering around replacing the shoe company’s all-American camp in Indianapolis with smaller position camps. The top 20 consensus high school point guards in the country will be invited to the Steve Nash point guard camp. The top 20 shooting guards will go to a camp hosted by Kobe, the top 20 wings will get to attend Vince Carter’s camp and the top 20 big men will benefit from the tutelage of Amare. The kids attending the camps will be at least rising 10th-graders and while Raveling acknowledged that about half of the players are already locks to be invited, these camps will go down in June, when college coaches can’t watch high school kids play. So the 80 chosen ones will come together during the NCAA’s July evaluation period in Akron for a camp hosted by (can you guess who?) LeBron.
Raveling stressed that the camps would be about teaching fundamentals and learning team play, and that NBA vets (for example, Jason Kidd and GP) retired players (John Stockton) and top coaches on all levels would be involved. While there will be some five-on-five action at Bron’s camp, Nike would also institute an event in August (called “The Global Challenge”) that has more of an all-star feel. The 80 kids from the camps will be divided into teams and all-star teams from four other countries (Raveling named Australia and China as tentative commitments) will be invited to compete. In addition, Raveling spoke of a “coaches’ learning academy” that would train select AAU and high school coaches on Nike’s payroll to teach kids “fundamentals and values,” perhaps run by Hubie Brown with help of Jack Ramsay, Chuck Daly and others.
Toward the end of the call, Raveling talked about the idea of a basketball academy for elite high school players, with Nike, USA Basketball, the NBA and the NCAA all in conjunction. He said that putting it into practice was at least a year or two away, but several factors still had to be ironed out, such as educational components and the logistics of it in general.
A few things stick out to me about Nike’s overall initiative. I think everyone associated with youth basketball, and even casual observers recognize there needs to be changes made. Nike’s response (and they’re obviously not alone in this), however, strikes me as somewhat of a knee-jerk and not entirely genuine reaction to both the USA Basketball debacle and the “AAU crisis.” The emphasis on skills and fundamentals isn’t a bad thing, but when only 80 kids will benefit from it, the motives seem suspect. Raveling said shoe affiliations won’t be a factor in choosing the camps’ participants (players from Reebok and adidas-sponsored teams will be invited) and obviously it would be hard for any kid to turn down an invite to a Nike camp with superstars coaching them. But it seems feasible that Nike might be using the camps as maybe a fundamental base for potential future Team USA players (I wonder if lightly-recruited D-Wade would have been picked for the camps as a high school player) and at the least, as a recruiting tool, I’m pretty sure the majority, if not all of the college coaches who will be instructing the kids already get checks from Phil Knight.
Which brings me back to Sonny Vaccaro. Sonny publicly suggested an upheaval of the current basketball developmental system—including a basketball academy (hello, OJ Mayo)—before Raveling and co. had their sit-down in the fall. I’m definitely not saying he was the first to do so, or that he’s not somewhat of a hypocrite (since he’s the main person responsible for the mess), but when Nike, adidas, USA Basketball, the NBA and NCAA talk about changing things in youth basketball, it’s damn near a crime to not include Vaccaro. Even with adidas’ decision to cease its Superstar Camp in Atlanta, Sonny hasn’t said he’ll stop doing ABCD, which is significant, as adidas now owns Reebok, even though they function separately.
Since the Bron camp in Akron will take place during the same July evaluation period (I’d bet they take place during the same week) and Nike plans to invite kids across shoe lines, I question how much progress really has been made in the sneaker wars. Yeah, top underclassmen like Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe, Lance Stephenson, etc. will get top-notch instruction of fundamentals for a week or two, but what does it mean in the long run? It remains to be seen…
16 Responses to “NIKE’s plans for youth basketball”
Nov.11 at 3:49 am
Boing Dynasty says:
Free shoes for everyone.
Nov.11 at 4:44 am
Parvu Traian says:
cool…
Nov.11 at 12:36 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Great stuff Aggrey (and good seeing you last night in Philly…) And you’re right, this isn’t enough to really fix the problem. It’s good to see they’re going in the right direction, but what’s really needed is more stuff like the NBPA Camp (check out PUNKS Vol. 2 if you haven’t already!) and similar things where the focus is really and truly on helping the kids become better players, regardless of sneaker affiliation or NBA superstar name-lending.
As for Sonny, he’s always gonna be a controversial guy and has definitely had a huge hand in all this. But the thing he’ll rightly tell you is that if the NBA and ESPECIALLY the NCAA weren’t making so many billions off the status quo, this could’ve been fixed a long time ago. They’re the ones that could change the whole situation for the better in no time at all, but they’re too busy counting their paper. Sonny has just taken advantage of the system that was already in place, and in fairness, a lot of kids have benefitted because of it.
Nov.11 at 8:59 pm
H to the izzo says:
The fact that only eighty kids will benefit seems a bit odd seeing as the real aim in developing talent is trying to make as many good/great players as possible not just eighty which really only indicate that the players that they invite will be there in a “come for the caoching,stay for the shoes” basis, where their really only trying to attract potential talents whether thier teams are with rval teams or not and since 99% of players have to go to college the company in which their high school and aau team were with would then be meaningless,but NIKE are trying to make these potential shoe deals(players) remember them by caoxing them with being able to play and learn from their favorite players,that sticks in the mind more than having a nice reebok jersey in high school. The solution would be to only allow two companies or whatever tou call em’ to hold camps USA Basketball and the NBA.Camps should be longer and coaching based with only all-star games and occasional showcase games to give them an opportunity to show what they’ve learned thet day,I know that it is very like the NBPA camp but its the best that can happen untill the NCAA change their unfair recruiting laws.
Nov.12 at 11:49 pm
tony says:
My question is what about the other kids who do not make the eighty. When you talk about fundamentals it should apply to all. What is going to be done for them.
Nov.17 at 4:44 am
a. sam says:
it’s late and i’m extremely late on this, but greats points all…ryan, you’re right about sonny’s honesty re: “solving that thing” (word to rick sutcliffe) and how the problem lies with him and rav’s long-running feud and their respective companies’ (adidas included) greed…H and tony, as some1 who works with high school ballplayers who are pretty good but won’t make the elite 80, i’m with you cut as well…unfortunately, i think the ncaa/shoe companies are in too deep to go back to the high school summer league/regional teaching camp/five-star days…the kids are too caught up and the money’s too big for the profiteers to ignore
Nov.30 at 5:18 pm
Nathalie says:
it should be more like 80 top pgs, 80 top shooting gaurds, 80 top wings….etc. not just 80 total. that’s kinda ridiculous. but way to take initiative. hopefully nikes money can calm some ncaa rules–wait wait! lets rewind ME back a couple years and send me to nike’s institute for future professional basketball players
Dec.2 at 1:00 pm
tony says:
that would be cool if they did do that but i think its all about the actual top 80 like the best in the league
Dec.3 at 5:27 pm
BETCATS says:
KID BALLERS
Dec.10 at 2:34 pm
Zebra says:
Well, I think it is a positive thing that Nike gets involved to help youngters in sports and more specifically in basketball. Support and training is always welcome.
Jan.7 at 9:27 am
boukar-t says:
i need a coach .i’m younger basketball player and i find one team for my formation and school.i am a student and my high is 204cm my weigh is 84kg because the food is not very best .my situation family is graazzy because i choose to play basketball.i live in cameroon in town of yaounde.i give for you my profile same is not very clear
Jan.9 at 12:20 am
Scouter2 says:
I thought that these position camps were from rising 9th graders and up
Feb.1 at 1:59 pm
Old School Baller says:
All of these skills camps to help solve the problem of kids leaving high school without fundamentals are nice. But there already is a place for that - it’s called college. That is the real “proving ground” and a true Darwinian environment that separates the overhyped from the real deal.
Feb.7 at 2:06 pm
NOC Rage says:
why don;t you do a article on a fully sponsered team 14u boys team out of southern ca called NOC Rage, they basically have everything Nike from all thier uniforms, shoes, socks, underwear , undert-shirts, etc…. they are very competative and will be attending the Nike president’s day all american basketball tournament in Portland on Feb 16 thru Feb 19. I think that it would be a great article in your magazine. Real Youth AAU Bassketball and how serious it is at the age of 14, they practice 2 times a week, 2 hours a practice, they attend a Strength and Conditioning Coach 2 times a week, and on weekends that their are not games they have a Track coach. They have Bible Studies on Sunday’s when they can not make it to church becaues of games. email me and I will be more then happy to give you info.
Apr.20 at 4:36 pm
» RBK-U, the Albert C. Donofrio Tourney, the Wanamakers, and more - SLAM ONLINE says:
[…] With Nike announcing last year that it would hold “skills camps” instead of a traditional All-American camp and Adidas out of the camp business entirely, Reebok recently announced their plans. As AAU/summer basketball/sneaker camp godfather Sonny Vaccaro steps away from the spotlight, Reebok has made some changes to their approach to the summer. […]
Oct.4 at 7:10 am
Nina says:
Hey! Someone on the Nike squad come check me out in upstate NY. Me and my team are amazing and not just me, but my team as a whole has a lot of heart for the game. And I eat, sleep, and breathe basketball. Everyone in my town knows who I am, so come check me out PLEASEEEEE!
I LOVE NIKE and I wear it all the time, I’ve never boughten adidas or reebok or any other brands, nike is bomb.
Thankss.
My email is ballank40@yahoo.com