Dan Wetzel - Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of Americas Youth

Copyright 2000 by Dan Wetzel and Don Yaeger

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval systems, without permission from the publisher in writing, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Warner Books,

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

ISBN: 978-0-7595-2155-1

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2000 by Warner Books.

First eBook edition: October 2000

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

Excellent reporting, powerful writing... The authors pull no punches.

Booklist (starred review)

A blistering expos... an alarm about the state of amateur sport, and about what a society addicted to sports and money is doing to the mindset and future of the nations youth.

Kirkus Reviews

An overall picture of a sport that is both devastating and sad.

Kansas City Star

For all its clever advertising campaigns, the real story of the sneaker industry is one of influence peddling and the unholy, unscrupulous recruitment of children. This is that storyin excruciating detail.

Phil Mushnick, New York Post and TV Guide

An amazing tale... an in-depth look at a sports world that seems more bought and sold than a Times Square trinket.

Providence Journal

For those who care about the game, SOLE INFLUENCE sends a most disturbing message. Read it and weep. But read it. The nasty Vaccaro-Raveling rivalry and the story of Nike pitchman Myron Piggie are alone worth the price of admission to college basketballs house of horrors.

Armen Keteyian, CBS and HBO Sports

We always knew something stunk about basketball and the sneaker business, and SOLE INFLUENCE lets us know where the stench is coming from.... A most revealing and insightful book.

Jackie MacMullan, Sports Illustrated

Wetzel and Yaeger make a disturbing case.... with an outrage tempered by realism, [the authors] mount a case that corporate money and the sneaker wars are bad for basketball and, more importantly, bad for the thousands of athletes who want to be like Mike.

Publishers Weekly

A sobering look at the shoe business... offers insight into the solution of how to stop the madness that, sadly, has become commonplace.

Northern Virginia Daily

Highly recommended.... The story is very convincingly laid out and makes the ironic point that the phenomenon of Michael Jordan so changed the world that there probably never will be another player with the same drive and relative innocence who so appeals to such a wide demographic.

Library Journal

Revealing... the authors present a view of basketball that will change the way we view the game as they expose its seamy side, which is far removed from the glamour of the NCAA Final Four and the public relations spectacle of the NBA.

Abilene Reporter News (TX)

For my parents,

Mary Ellen and Paul

DW

To my son, Billy:

You have so many talents,

so many gifts,

so great a future.

Im counting on you to change the world.

DY

I n the course of some two hundred interviews for this book the authors benefited from the assistance, professionalism, honesty, and courage of people from throughout the world of basketball who were willing to talk about a tough subject. Some of the people quoted in this book we know well, while for others we were just a voice on the phone asking a lot of questions. To thank all of those who helped would be impossible, but know that we are indebted to all of you.

Of course, many of the interview subjects would prefer to keep their identity private and for that we understand. Basketball is a lucrative, powerful, and cutthroat multibillion-dollar industry and one which values loyalty and an adherence to a certain code of silence that, unfortunately, prevents some from speaking out even for the common good. In the course of this book we attempted to keep the use of off-the-record quotes and assertions to the bare minimum, preferring instead to remain on the record at all times. While this toned down some of the more eye-popping allegations, we believe it gives the reader a more balanced perspective.

We also drew on our experience of many years covering high school and traveling team basketball at the national level. We did not descend upon this world for a few weeks to write a snapshot. Rather, we believe our thorough coverage of grassroots basketball over the years allowed us to view things with a broad perspective. We gratefully thank the high school and traveling team coaches and players, not to mention college head and assistant coaches, we have spent many days and nights watching and talking basketball with. Of particular note we would like to thank the following for their contributions to this effort.

Rick Wolff, our editor at Warner Books, believed in this project from the start and kept us sharp and honest from proposal to final draft. Thanks also to his assistant, Dan Ambrosio. Basil Kane is more than a tremendous agent, he is also a friend.

Special recognition to Sports Illustrated editors Greg Kelly, Craig Neff, and Rob Fleder, fellow writers Chris Stone, Alex Wolff, and Seth Davis, and research staff Linda Ronan and Linda Wachtel, all of whom make life at Sports Illustrated the best job in the business.

We must also thank Basketball Times publisher Larry Donald for his support of this project, as well as Dans colleagues Mike Sheridan and Joe Kyriakoza.

A number of journalists provided great help, moral support, and guidance and may find some of their work reflected here, including Jeff Manning of the Oregonian, Mike Marshall of the Huntsville Times, Taylor Bell of the Chicago Sun Times, Pat Forde of the Louisville Courier-Journal, David Scott and Norb Garrett of Sport, Dick Hoops Weiss of the New York Daily News, Mike DeCourcy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Andy Katz of the Fresno Bee, Jack Ebling of the Lansing State Journal, Steve Lopez of Sports Illustrated, Rome Hartman and Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, Sonja Steptoe of CNN/SI, Constance Johnson of HBO Sports, Michael Morrissey and Sean Hayden of the Northwest Indiana Times, Oscar Avila of the Kansas City Star, Chris Fusco of the Arlington (Illinois) Daily Herald, James Ahlers of the Mesa Tribune, and Rick Notter of Inside Indiana.

Also thanks to recruiting scouts Clark Francis, Stephen Wacaser, Dave Tellep, Van Coleman, Tom Konchalski, Bob Gibbons, and Vince Baldwin: We like you no matter what Bob Knight says.

Special thanks goes to Armen Keteyian, who along with the aforementioned Alex Wolff, authored the trailblazing 1989 book Raw Recruits, which was a tremendous help. Keteyians 1997 effort, Money Players, which he wrote along with Harvey Araton and Martin F. Dardis, was just as valuable.

Also to our friends and family who helped us through the process, most notably Jan Wilson, whose daily encouragement of and patience with Dan made this possible, Paul and Mary Ellen Wetzel, Rich Cohen, Daniel Strikowski, Paul Connolly, Howard Ziff, Russ Pulliam, Bill Strickland, Brian Murphy, Paul and Matt Tryder, Eric Hynes, Pat Mungovan, and John Berry.