Sole Influence

September 1, 1999
Wetzel, managing editor at Basketball Times, and Yaeger, associate editor at Sports Illustrated, show how the sneaker conglomerates court kids who might be next year's big stars.

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 1999
The best move Nike ever made was hiring Michael Jordan to endorse its products. Everyone got rich. Ever since the Jordan bonanza, shoe companies have dipped deeper and deeper into the basketball-playing youth of America in hopes of securing the next MJ. Wetzel and Yaeger expose the exploitive, often unethical, and sometimes illegal methods the shoe companies have used to dominate amateur and college basketball. Through their representatives, usually high-school and college coaches, the companies buy "loyalty" by supplying athletic gear to players and teams. They also fly players to amateur tournaments and camps, put coaches on their payrolls, and allegedly steer players to "their" colleges, the ones that receive money and gear to display the company's logo. The authors pull no punches in pointing out that the majority of the kids who become entangled with shoe companies are disadvantaged inner-city residents who are summarily abandoned as soon as their value to the corporation diminishes. All basketball fans are aware, at least peripherally, that this shameful situation exists, but Wetzel and Yaeger's exposeshould give the issue the wider exposure it deserves. Excellent reporting, powerful writing. ((Reviewed December 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)