- Joined
- May 14, 2002
- Posts
- 88,567
- Reaction score
- 40,372
The way they treat young kids like cattle just nauseates me.
Love no longer on Nike's Legends team
The move comes after the Oregon prep basketball player of the year attends the Reebok ABCD Camp
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
DAN MOONEY
The Nike-funded Portland Elite Legends have lost the services of Kevin Love and Kyle Singler, two of the nation's top rising juniors.
A 6-foot-9 center from Lake Oswego High School, Love said he was told this past weekend by Nike representatives that he no longer could play this summer for the Legends, one of the country's top AAU travel basketball teams. The move came after Love participated in the rival Reebok ABCD Camp on July 5-9 in Teaneck, N.J. Nike held its All-America Camp on the same dates in Indianapolis.
"They fired him," said Stan Love, Kevin's father and a former University of Oregon standout and former NBA player. "And they did it after he was named one of ABCD's best players."
Love finished as the ABCD camp's third-highest rated player. Center Greg Oden, a 7-foot-1 rising senior from Indianapolis who widely is considered the country's No. 1 prep player, was the camp's highest-rated participant.
Nike, Reebok and Adidas are three of the leading sponsors of travel basketball teams, but amateur players cannot receive merchandise directly from a shoe company under NCAA rules. Companies supply teams that they sponsor, and the equipment they receive depends on the team's contract with the company.
"From Nike's perspective, the All-America Camp is the pinnacle, their baby," Legends coach Troy Berry said. "They want their best players to attend, and obviously that includes Kevin.
"I'm a huge Kevin Love fan and always will be."
Telephone calls to Nike were referred to Don Crenshaw, the company's head of travel basketball. Calls to Crenshaw were not returned.
Love, who began playing on the Legends' top team last summer, said he wanted to play in the Reebok camp because it had the best competition of any of the camps.
"I'm a 16-year-old kid," he said. "Why should I have to make a decision to play in one tournament or another? I just wanted to play where the best players were."
The Legends' loss of a player of Love's talent was exacerbated when Singler, a 6-8 combination guard from South Medford High School, tore the meniscus in his right knee on the first day of the Nike camp in Indianapolis. Ed Singler, Kyle's father, said his son was scheduled to have surgery today and is expected to be out one to four weeks.
The Legends, minus Singler and Love, were scheduled to begin play today in the Peach Jam, a Nike event in North Augusta, S.C., that features the companies' top 24 teams. On July 22-26, the Legends are scheduled to finish summer travel play in the Main Event, a national tournament in Las Vegas.
The Legends, who are ranked No. 2 by BasketballBeat.com in a rating of travel teams, made a national splash this spring. With a roster stocked with some of Oregon's finest high school players, they won the Houston Kingwood Classic, the country's largest tournament during the April recruiting period, and the Nike Memorial Day Classic in New Orleans.
Those tournaments were won with Love and Singler.
Love is ranked as the No. 3 player in the class of 2007 by Rivals.com and is the reigning Oregon Class 4A Player of the Year after leading Lake Oswego to the state-title game in March.
Considered by some as the state's finest all-around prep athlete, Singler is rated No. 4 nationally in the 2007 class by Rivals.com.
Despite Love's exit from the Nike fold, it appears his summer isn't over. Stan Love said his son is scheduled to play for a Reebok-sponsored team, the Southern California All-Stars in the Main Event. The all-stars are ranked No. 1 by BasketballBeat.com.
"I have nothing bad to say about Nike," Kevin Love said. "I just wanted to play against the best players in the country and that's what I did in the ABCD event. It was the best basketball experience of my life, plus I got to meet people like Jay-Z and LeBron (James)."
Love no longer on Nike's Legends team
The move comes after the Oregon prep basketball player of the year attends the Reebok ABCD Camp
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
DAN MOONEY
The Nike-funded Portland Elite Legends have lost the services of Kevin Love and Kyle Singler, two of the nation's top rising juniors.
A 6-foot-9 center from Lake Oswego High School, Love said he was told this past weekend by Nike representatives that he no longer could play this summer for the Legends, one of the country's top AAU travel basketball teams. The move came after Love participated in the rival Reebok ABCD Camp on July 5-9 in Teaneck, N.J. Nike held its All-America Camp on the same dates in Indianapolis.
"They fired him," said Stan Love, Kevin's father and a former University of Oregon standout and former NBA player. "And they did it after he was named one of ABCD's best players."
Love finished as the ABCD camp's third-highest rated player. Center Greg Oden, a 7-foot-1 rising senior from Indianapolis who widely is considered the country's No. 1 prep player, was the camp's highest-rated participant.
Nike, Reebok and Adidas are three of the leading sponsors of travel basketball teams, but amateur players cannot receive merchandise directly from a shoe company under NCAA rules. Companies supply teams that they sponsor, and the equipment they receive depends on the team's contract with the company.
"From Nike's perspective, the All-America Camp is the pinnacle, their baby," Legends coach Troy Berry said. "They want their best players to attend, and obviously that includes Kevin.
"I'm a huge Kevin Love fan and always will be."
Telephone calls to Nike were referred to Don Crenshaw, the company's head of travel basketball. Calls to Crenshaw were not returned.
Love, who began playing on the Legends' top team last summer, said he wanted to play in the Reebok camp because it had the best competition of any of the camps.
"I'm a 16-year-old kid," he said. "Why should I have to make a decision to play in one tournament or another? I just wanted to play where the best players were."
The Legends' loss of a player of Love's talent was exacerbated when Singler, a 6-8 combination guard from South Medford High School, tore the meniscus in his right knee on the first day of the Nike camp in Indianapolis. Ed Singler, Kyle's father, said his son was scheduled to have surgery today and is expected to be out one to four weeks.
The Legends, minus Singler and Love, were scheduled to begin play today in the Peach Jam, a Nike event in North Augusta, S.C., that features the companies' top 24 teams. On July 22-26, the Legends are scheduled to finish summer travel play in the Main Event, a national tournament in Las Vegas.
The Legends, who are ranked No. 2 by BasketballBeat.com in a rating of travel teams, made a national splash this spring. With a roster stocked with some of Oregon's finest high school players, they won the Houston Kingwood Classic, the country's largest tournament during the April recruiting period, and the Nike Memorial Day Classic in New Orleans.
Those tournaments were won with Love and Singler.
Love is ranked as the No. 3 player in the class of 2007 by Rivals.com and is the reigning Oregon Class 4A Player of the Year after leading Lake Oswego to the state-title game in March.
Considered by some as the state's finest all-around prep athlete, Singler is rated No. 4 nationally in the 2007 class by Rivals.com.
Despite Love's exit from the Nike fold, it appears his summer isn't over. Stan Love said his son is scheduled to play for a Reebok-sponsored team, the Southern California All-Stars in the Main Event. The all-stars are ranked No. 1 by BasketballBeat.com.
"I have nothing bad to say about Nike," Kevin Love said. "I just wanted to play against the best players in the country and that's what I did in the ABCD event. It was the best basketball experience of my life, plus I got to meet people like Jay-Z and LeBron (James)."
