BREAKING: Nike PAID DeAndre Ayton when he was at Arizona

[MotownMadness]

This is what he was demanding 20 mil over from Nike?

[Crives]

Read on Twitter

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[Lunartic]

Agreed. If the NCAA wants to say they're and amateur competition that is fine by me as long as that is more than well known by both parties that, that is what they're agreeing too. But yes the policy that says they can't make money off their own name and likeness is beyond stupid. That is the NCAA going out of their way to make sure these players aren't paid.

Just on a side note, I don't get this from the NCAA side either. That is free publicity for them if they let the players make money off their likeness. Im sure RJ and Zion would have a commercial out by now. Im sure Trevor Lawrence over the summer would have a commercial offer or 2. That is just free publicity for them, while also letting the players get paid. Seems like that is an obvious win for the NCAA and an even more obvious win for the players.

If I'm the NCAA I say, you can make all the money in the world off your likeness but, you must include NCAA branding on everything and we get a veto in terms of quality content.

Meaning, Zion cant shill for Big Redd's House of Intimate Apparel without the NCAA first okaying it.

Ask for a set % of any Nike/Adidas/etc deals signed.

They've got some archaic dinosaur thinkers over in the NCAA

I wouldn't even go that far. I don't think the NCAA should have to approve those decisions. The player should be able to monetize off his name anyway he'd like, just like any other student in the school.

Add on: And to your point of endorsing something like Big Redd's House of Intimate Apparel. The best I would say is, leave that up to the individual school and coach. Just make sure it is known during recruiting. So if you are a school like BYU, I can see you not wanting a player on your team endorsing that product. Well that would just be a recruiting disadvantage for them. Cause other schools will have no problem with it.

Agreed, I was suggesting a more diplomatic route , appealing to NCAAs and every businesses desire for growing future profits.

Def agree on your second point too

[Sofia]

Prosecutors? What law is being broken that prosecutors need to be involved in?

**** the NCAA by the way

[ubernathan]

Nike could face criminal charges for this, if true.

[coldfish]

As a side note, if Ayton was getting paid all this money, did he pay tax on it?

Before everyone gets cranky, think about it, either:
- He declared the income, paid tax on it and the federal government has known about his income the whole time
or
- Some dude making over $100k skated on paying 10's of thousands in taxes. While pennies to an NBA player, if anyone here just chose not to pay 10's of thousands in taxes we would be in a lot of trouble.

[LightTheBeam]

Avenatti.... That guy is doing anything and everything he can to stay relevant. I'm having a hard time finding him credible.

That said, even if this is true, I have a hard time getting outraged by these "scandals". I just don't care if a big corporation pays a college kid.

Second this

[LightTheBeam]

Why are we taking news from Creepy Porn Lawyer as if hes relevant. Guy is as sketchy as they come

[NBAFan93]

Interesting story. So Kaepernick’s lawyer was involved in this scheme to extort them as well? Perhaps that contract Kaepernick got was a payoff?

No excuse for this dude trying to extort millions off of Nike not to tell - that’s shady as all hell - if they did something wrong, report them, don’t try and negotiate 30 million dollars in a payoff to keep your mouth shut.

Makes you wonder how many people Nike is paying off? Do like half their profits go towards payoffs. Also sounds like lots of people aren’t paying taxes on big chunks of money and could be charged w/ that if the government wanted to push it.

And wouldn’t Bol Bol be well off enough that he wouldn’t take payoffs? Or do rich kids take them too?

[NBAFan93]

As a side note, if Ayton was getting paid all this money, did he pay tax on it?

Before everyone gets cranky, think about it, either:
- He declared the income, paid tax on it and the federal government has known about his income the whole time
or
- Some dude making over $100k skated on paying 10's of thousands in taxes. While pennies to an NBA player, if anyone here just chose not to pay 10's of thousands in taxes we would be in a lot of trouble.

That’s what I was thinking. Feel bad for him being a “poor college student” all you want, but that’s not right he’s getting $100K w/o paying taxes on it. That’s like getting out of $30K+ in tax money that all of us working scrubs have to pay every year.

[Yoshun]

I've seen a few people say Nike could be in legal trouble. Can anyone elaborate? I don't know anything about the legal ramifications here.

[TheDominator273]

Nike probably did it. But they didn’t pay him enough if Ayton signed with Puma.

Haha ya.

Nike: Okay here is 100k, choose a Nike school to play for

Ayton: I am attending Arizona (Adidas school)

Nike: Okay not what we talked about but here is a little more so when you're done playing with Arizona, you will sign with us

Ayton: I have signed a shoe deal with Puma

Nike: Guys I think we may have been played

I would become the biggest fan of Ayton if it played out even similar to this haha.

Arizona is a Nike school

[NBAFan93]

I've seen a few people say Nike could be in legal trouble. Can anyone elaborate? I don't know anything about the legal ramifications here.

Fraud, bribery, tax evasion...conspiracy to defraud. Victim would probably be the NCAA or the university. Possibly other students who missed out on scholarships - possibly other schools who lost revenue for their honest programs cause these guys cheated.

Similar lines to that scandal w/ those rich people paying people off to get their kids admitted to colleges. Victims there would be kids who didn’t get in, and those kids where stealing whatever value you’d place on that admission from the University. Victim not really clear, but it’s still illegal.

[CycklopsGT]

BREAKING: Nike abuses kids for manufacturing their shoes.
BREAKING : Nike banned Kaepernick from the NFL, then sided with him when it was cool.


POS brand with no morals whatsoever.

this just in: giant companies built through unabated capitalism have no values or morals

Sweatshops and black markets are formed through abatements of capitalism. Not unabated capitalism.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

I've seen a few people say Nike could be in legal trouble. Can anyone elaborate? I don't know anything about the legal ramifications here.

You could argue that Nike paying Ayton to attend Arizona and hiding it from Arizona defrauded Arizona into awarding a scholarship to Ayton when if they had known Ayton and Nike were violating NCAA rules, Arizona would not have offered him a scholarship.

Also if Ayton didn't pay taxes, he could owe the IRS.

Now if you think it's pretty stupid that Arizona reaping millions in revenue by having Ayton attend the school somehow makes the school the victim, yes. Granted Arizona could suffer NCAA penalties.

It goes without saying the entire NCAA is unfair and corrupt, but Nike as a whole won't suffer at all. Schools make too much money on Nike sponsorship deals to allow the NCAA to do anything to them.

But the Adidas case did result in light prison sentences for a couple of the individuals involved, so someone at Nike could be in trouble and lose their job. I don't doubt Avenatti tried to broker some kind of deal for silence though, the guy's as slimy as the National Enquirer and in financial trouble. Whether that was illegal, who knows what Nike has as evidence.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

BREAKING: Nike abuses kids for manufacturing their shoes.
BREAKING : Nike banned Kaepernick from the NFL, then sided with him when it was cool.


POS brand with no morals whatsoever.

this just in: giant companies built through unabated capitalism have no values or morals

Sweatshops and black markets are formed through abatements of capitalism. Not unabated capitalism.

Yeah, that's nonsensical.

Sweatshops would obviously exist in "unabated capitalism."

Now black markets wouldn't if nothing was illegal, but how do you define "unabated capitalism"? If murder was still illegal for example, contract killing could only exist on a black market.

[CycklopsGT]

this just in: giant companies built through unabated capitalism have no values or morals

Sweatshops and black markets are formed through abatements of capitalism. Not unabated capitalism.

Yeah, that's nonsensical.

Sweatshops would obviously exist in "unabated capitalism."

No they wouldn't because labor conditions are determined by negotiating leverage, which is determined by market competition. Sweatshops only exist in countries that destroy worker's options by strangling the dynamics that inevitably lead to that competition. Furthermore, children can't sign contracts in capitalist systems. See below for how unabated capitalism would work.

Now black markets wouldn't if nothing was illegal, but how do you define "unabated capitalism"? If murder was still illegal for example, contract killing could only exist on a black market.

Unabated capitalism would be a system that controls only for things that can reduce freedom, mainly force like fraud, theft, and coercion. Including attempting to force people into obligations that they can't understand. Murder would not be okay in unabated capitalism because that's a form of force.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

Sweatshops and black markets are formed through abatements of capitalism. Not unabated capitalism.

Yeah, that's nonsensical.

Sweatshops would obviously exist in "unabated capitalism."

No they wouldn't because labor conditions are determined by negotiating leverage, which is determined by market competition. Sweatshops only exist in countries that destroy worker's options by strangling the dynamics that inevitably lead to that competition. Furthermore, children can't sign contracts in capitalist systems. See below for how unabated capitalism would work.

Now black markets wouldn't if nothing was illegal, but how do you define "unabated capitalism"? If murder was still illegal for example, contract killing could only exist on a black market.

Unabated capitalism would be a system that controls only for things that can reduce freedom, mainly force like fraud, theft, and coercion. Including attempting to force people into obligations that they can't understand. Murder would not be okay in unabated capitalism because that's a form of force.

Okay so you agree black markets would still exist.

As far as sweatshops, market competition doesn't exist in pure capitalism. Market competition is a bad thing that firms will do everything in their power to remove. For example, that might look like AT&T and Verizon partnering to buy American Tower and other tower companies and then immediately drop Tmobile and Sprint from their towers, destroying their businesses overnight (granted the entire wireless communications industry couldn't even exist without government protection, since without the ability to own a given spectrum, anyone could interfere with the signal for any reason).

Except labor has even less leverage than Tmobile and Sprint in a pure capitalist society. Examples can be see in the late 1800s. Corporations overmatch labor due to game theory, self interest of the actors. The corporation can act as a single unified party and split labor apart. Labor's gains really only occurred at the ballot box, not as much directly through bargaining (except where government helped support unions with certain favorable policies to allow them to bargain more effectively).

[clyde21]

BREAKING: Nike abuses kids for manufacturing their shoes.
BREAKING : Nike banned Kaepernick from the NFL, then sided with him when it was cool.


POS brand with no morals whatsoever.

this just in: giant companies built through unabated capitalism have no values or morals

Sweatshops and black markets are formed through abatements of capitalism. Not unabated capitalism.

'SwEAtShOPs r A PrOduCt of ReGuLatiOn"

[flow]

On his Twitter account Tuesday morning, Avenatti wrote, "Ask Deandre Ayton and Nike about the cash payments to his mother and others. Nike’s attempt at diversion and cover-up will fail miserably once prosecutors realize they have been played by Nike and their lawyers at [the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner]. This reaches the highest levels of Nike." Ayton played collegiately for one year at Arizona before becoming the first pick in the NBA draft last year. Avenatti included no specifics to back up his allegation.

https://sports.yahoo.com/michael-avenatti-goes-on-offensive-on-twitter-claims-deandre-ayton-nike-involved-in-cash-payments-135228103.html

I thought it was known that the school paid Ayton

No, Miller was exonerated.