Marcus Jordan, son of basketball great Michael Jordan, who is scheduled to play basketball for the University of Central Florida is drawing some heat for his sneaker preference. Marcus wants to wear his fathers Air Jordan shoes while he plays, however, the University of Central Florida (UCF) has a multi-million dollar deal with Adidas. Reports indicate the Marcus was upfront about his desire to wear the Air Jordan’s during the recruitment process and UCF never indicated there was a problem. Now that Marcus has committed to play for UCF the University is now weary about his sneaker preference and are indicating that they desire him to wear the Adidas. Clearly this has the potential to turn into a “he said she said”. Marcus had to be aware that UCF had a deal with Adidas (his father no doubt knows the sponsorship game) and what this entailed. However, if UCF never indicated during the recruitment process that this was going to be a problem then it does not seem fair that they suddenly change their tune when they have him already committed to playing. With the information at hand it is hard to tell who is to blame. The unfortunate part of this situation is that a young man, who already has a tremendous amount of pressure on him because he is the son of a basketball great, now on top of dealing with the pressures of being a college freshman and a basketball player must deal with this “sneaker scandal”. I guess we can chalk this up to the reality of college sports being big business (a topic for another day!).
Justin Mayer, Executive Director ISPA
Tags: Adidas, Basketball, College Basketball, Dr. John Mayer, International Sports Professionals Association, ISPA, Jordan, Marcus Jordan, Michael Jordan, Nike, Sports, Sports and Media, Sports Careers, UCF, University of Central Florida
It’s a shame that this young man has to deal with this nonsense on top of all the other pressures he is under. Let the kid wear his fathers shoes!
Adidas pays a lot of money to the school to be their official supplier. Michael Jordan’s son is know different than anyone else on the team and he should have to wear the shoes.
Peace,
Jim
You post informative posts. Bookmarked !
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls…you can’t get better than that combination and no-one has come close since!
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It’s lovely to see more people taking part in sport these days.