Ballin' is a Habit

FOR THOSE THAT DON'T UNDERSTAND THE INFLUENCE OF SHOE COMPANIES: Before I get into this, let me give you a bit of background information. Keith Easterwood is an AAU coach in the Memphis area, coaching some of the best prospects in the class of 2011 and 2012.

The past weekend, both Memphis and Tennessee held their Elite camps (if you don't know what an Elite camp is, it is a loophole in recruiting rules that allows the schools to host a basketball camp for "elite" players, essentially giving them a legal reason to get kids they are pursuing, or considering pursuing, onto campus).

Easterwood's team is sponsored by Nike. So is Memphis. Tennessee is an Adidas school.

I'll let Easterwood tell the story. From the Thoughts:

I polled my kids after a game. I asked 12 kids: 'Do you want to go to the Memphis Elite Camp or the Tennessee Elite Camp?' ... And all of them, to a man, said they wanted to go to Knoxville. Well, that was good for me. So we did what we had to do to get prepared to get them up there, talked to parents, one thing and another.

I got some calls, some were shoe-affiliated. Nike, Adidas, you can connect the dots. ... Memphis is Nike. I'm with a Nike AAU program. And it was expressed to me that it would be in my best interests to stay home and not make the trip to Knoxville, which is what we ultimately did.

Easterwood also goes on to tell Parrish that a "person of influence" from Nike contacted him about the decision to attend UT's Elite camp. Apparently, that person made it very clear that if Andre Hollins, one of Easterwood's best players, went to the UT camp, he would not be receiving his invitation to the Nike Hoops Jamboree in St. Louis.

As you would probably expect, Easterwood took his kids to the Memphis Elite camp, and Hollins got his invite to the Nike Hoops Jamboree.

Does anyone else see a problem here? A bunch of 15 and 16 year old kids are missing out on a chance to go away for a weekend to Knoxville because of the shoes companies that sponsor the team they play for?

Stuff like this happens everyday. At its highest levels, high school basketball and college recruiting is as dirty and money-driven as it gets. I mean, seriously, a shoe company should not be allowed to have this much influence over an AAU basketball team. Remember, these kids are in the class of 2011 and 2012, meaning that a lot of them cannot even officially be recruited yet.

This is my least favorite part about the summertime. All you ever hear about is the dirty side of amateur basketball.