Merl Code - Black Market - An Insiders Journey into the High-Stakes World of College Basketball

A penetrating insiders account of the big business of basketball, and a much-needed expos of a system that hurts young athletes the most.

Shammond Williams, former NBA point guard and shooting guard

Both fascinating and right on target, a much-needed look at the often bizarre path that youthful basketball talent travels.

Roland Lazenby, author of Michael Jordan: The Life

Everybody who believes in justice and fairness should thank Merl Code for telling his story nowand for telling it so colorfully and engagingly. Black Market is required reading.

David Steele, award-winning sports journalist and coauthor of Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith

For years Merl Code was one of the most powerful figures in college basketball. Now he delivers the insider account about how the sport really worksand how the federal case against him made no sensethat every fan should read.

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports columnist and bestselling author of Sole Influence

An explosive, honest, and essential account that will reframe the way you think about competitive basketball at every level. Black Market is at once an intimate, compelling memoir and an urgent and necessary call for change.

Jay King, staff writer at The Athletic

BLACK MARKET

AN INSIDERS JOURNEY INTO THE HIGH-STAKES WORLD OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL

MERL CODE

Merl Code served as a director at Nike and consultant for Adidas. He is a former professional basketball player and played Division I basketball for Clemson University. He lives in South Carolina with his family. Black Market is his first book.

Id like to dedicate this book to all those who refuse to stay silent so that others can remain comfortable. The truth makes people uneasy because it complicates the lie they live.

Contents

This memoir is grounded, first and foremost, in my own experiences and memories. My stories were cross-referenced against interviews and correspondence with former teammates, families, coaches, colleagues and friends, and, where relevant, court documents. This specific narrative may be mine alone, but it illuminates the struggles of countless young athletes across multiple generations. I hope it inspires change.

Zion shifts his weight from side to side, looking around the room with a hint of shyness, almost embarrassment, as a man sings his praises to the cameras and a small crowd assembled to watch. Its part interview, part hype session. But when the man nudges him to introduce himself, he hesitates.

Im Zion, the boy says, taking in a deep breath. And I like to ball.

Youre the number one player in your class, the man proclaims, clearly feeling like Zion is being a bit too understated. And the man is probably right. Zion is, after all, starting to build quite a buzz for himself in the basketball world.

Aint nobody can hold you in your class, the man continues. Nationally, youre on the map!

I definitely aint backing down, Zion finally says, showing a hint of the self-confidence he exudes on the court.

At this point you are probably thinking to yourself, I know who Zion is. The number one pick in the 2019 NBA draft. As a rookie with the New Orleans Pelicans he was already an NBA megastar and one-man ratings bonanza whod secured a $75 million sponsorship deal with Nikes Jordan Brand. His highlight videos got hundreds of millions of views online before he even set foot on Dukes campus or was named college basketballs player of the year. In only his second year as a pro, he became an NBA All-Star and one of the leagues most marketable faces.

All of that is true. But actually, you probably dont know Zion. Not this Zion, anyway. Because this isnt Zion Williamson were talking about. Its Zion Lawson. This Zion is the number one player in the class of 2029. If youre doing the math in your head, youre right. Hes eleven years old. Hes on a Nike-sponsored travel team. Theyve already got highlights of their players splashed across various social media accounts. Its on.

And if you want to know how this game really works, youve gotta understand what the next eight years of this kids lifescratch that, all of these kids livesare going to be like.

Now that theyve been identified as top-tier players in their class, theyre going to be shuttled through a system of branded basketball camps and clinics every spring and summer that are run by Nike, adidas and Under Armour.

And Puma, who is trying to reestablish itself in the basketball market on the back of sponsorship deals with young up-and-comers like Deandre Ayton, Michael Porter Jr., Marcus Smart and the 2021 NBA Rookie of the Year LaMelo Ball, will have something to say as well, along with New Balance, which recently inked a footwear-and-apparel deal with Boston College to outfit all of its athletic teams, and has Kawhi Leonard and young, emerging NBA talent like Darius Bazley in the fold.

Staffers from the brand their team is associated with, who are geographically positioned around the country, will interact with these kids or their people constantly. And depending on how highly ranked they are, that same staffer is shipping them productshoes, shirts, shorts, sweat suits, socks, backpacks, whateveron a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. The FedEx deliveryman knows whats up, even though the names on the packages often change. That sneaker rep is like a year-round Santa Claus whose elves do nothing but make the hottest basketball gear, sometimes including stuff that hasnt, and may never, hit retail stores open to the general public.

Thats their job. That was my job.

By the time they were in their midteens and college coaches came knocking, I knew damn near everything there was to know about a kids family. I knew if Dad drank and flew off the handle. I knew if he was cheating. I knew if Mom needed a job because her company hit a rough patch and had to lay folks off. I knew who else was in their lifeuncles, cousins, random hangers-on hoping the talented kid might be their meal ticket.

Mom wanted some new shoes? Done. The young man needed some winter clothes? I had you. By the time these kids were sixteen and starting to consider where they wanted to go to college, nobody had a better relationship with them than I did.

So now you can begin to understand why college coaches call sneaker reps when theyre trying to start a relationship with a kid and his family. Theyve already been in there for years by then. And they know whos influential in the kids life, whos got the juice.

What? You thought these kids just magically show up at these camps, the coaches see them, they start being recruited and next thing everybody knows theyre on campus?

Think about it.

If youre that kid and his family, which school are you more likely to choose? One thats sponsored by the brand thats been outfitting you for years and helping your family, right? Not always, but definitely more often than not.

When I was at Nike, we wanted them at Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina or Oregon. At adidas? We wanted them at the University of Kansas, Indiana, Louisville, North Carolina State or Miami. Over at Under Armour? South Carolina, Auburn or Wisconsin. The list could go on for each of those brands, but you get the idea. Were pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into sponsoring these programs, so we need them suiting up the best players, right?

And then, when they turn pro a year or two later, its time to make it official. Welcome to the family. Of course, youve been part of the family for a long time. And hopefully you were taken care of along the way, because you deserved it, no matter what the money-hoarding NCAA said.