Oklahoma City, In the Press

[Teo9969]

Except for I have family that works very high up the chain at Nike and would giggle at everything you just said. None of it is true. Nike basketball wasn’t hemorrhaging anything. They had lebron who just won a title for Cleveland.

I really respect your postings here urbanized, but you’re just dead wrong on this one. Nike doesn’t interfere with where players go, it’s not how they do business or operate, to the point it’s incorporated into the pitches they make to players. We don’t interfere, you have the freedom to decide where you want to play.

That your contacts work high up the chain doesn't really sell the point you think it sells.

You're telling me no individual at Nike saw the huge win it would be for them for KD to sign with GSW and thought "Maybe we need to fan the flames here"?

No one is saying "Nike told KD to go to GSW." I find the notion that everyone at Nike played Switzerland and kept tight lips on what decision they believed to be best for Nike hard to believe. If people at these types of mega-corporations toe the line on keeping a tight lid when the SEC can send them to jail for issues like insider trading, my guess is that they do not perform better when it comes to non-legal issues that directly impact their business.

To be certain I 100% believe you regarding what their policy is and that they sell exactly that to their players. But there is no possible chance that they had no influence. Any person of any consequence at Nike would basically have to have cut-off contact with every individual in KD's personal and business circle at that time. A Mom talking to her 18 year-old son's 17 year-old girlfriend about how she will miss her son if he goes 3 states away to college is not some big conspiracy of a Mom trying to force her son to stay in state for college...it's just the natural ebb and flow of an individual communicating their desires---even if she had already told her son that she's going to let him decide what's best of this life. That anecdote is not particularly far from what would be the normal course of business here.

[Thomas Vu]

That story would make for great sports radio.

[Urbanized]

Except for I have family that works very high up the chain at Nike and would giggle at everything you just said. None of it is true. Nike basketball wasn’t hemorrhaging anything. They had lebron who just won a title for Cleveland.

I really respect your postings here urbanized, but you’re just dead wrong on this one. Nike doesn’t interfere with where players go, it’s not how they do business or operate, to the point it’s incorporated into the pitches they make to players. We don’t interfere, you have the freedom to decide where you want to play.

If they they were high up at Nike in 2016 I’ll bet they weren’t giggling when this story came out in June of that year, just two weeks before KD left for GSW: https://www.complex.com/sneakers/201...ike-basketball

What The Hell Has Happened To Nike Basketball?

Nike may have started off as a company focused on selling running shoes to Americans, but it’s built a legacy on taking over the basketball market. NBA legends such as Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Penny Hardaway have all had memorable sneakers over the years, which have become the literal foundation that much of modern-day Nike is built on. This mentality has led the brand to scoop up current NBA superstars such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the recently retired Kobe Bryant, making the basketball business one big arms race to secure the top talent away from competing companies. But the brand has been slipping lately. Its Basketball division has been slumping—not to mention, it failed to re-sign Steph Curry—and its head exec, Michael Jackson, just recently resigned.

So the big question everyone is wondering: Where did Nike’s business go all wrong?

For the insiders paying attention, a report came out that said Foot Locker was having trouble selling Durant and James’s sneakers. "Primary losses came in LeBron and KD product, a challenge which we've been addressing with our partners at Nike," the retailer's CEO, Dick Johnson, revealed on an earnings call.

The main reason behind the slumping sales for both Nike’s LeBron and KD lines was the price points of the sneakers, and rightfully so: The LeBron 13 retails for $200 (previous LeBron sneakers have costs as much as $300), while the Durants go for $180-$200, which puts them in the same ballpark as retro Jordans. But that’s expected, right? They’re performance basketball shoes with brand-new technology, not old sneakers that have been re-released for the fifth time. But somehow, some way, the product wasn’t flying off the shelves like it did in the past.

Remember when Nike Basketball, with its current roster (sans Kyrie), was absolutely killing it? There were limited-edition LeBrons, KDs, and Kobes dropping on a regular basis and selling out on the same day. Those days have long gone, except for brief flashes of certain Kobe Bryant sneakers.

There’s not one specific cause for Nike Basketball losing some of its steam. The brand is still bigger than Under Armour and adidas, but both of those brands have made big moves. Under Armour’s basketball sales are up by over 700 percent after signing Steph Curry, and adidas just threw a ton of money—$200M to be exact—at James Harden, which ultimately created buzz for the company’s much-maligned segment of its business.

....

When I said hemorrhaging cash I guess what I really should have said is market share. And they were losing hundreds of millions in market share. Versus Under Armor, GSW and Steph. And they were staring down multiple seasons of a near-guarantee of the Larry O’Brien being hoisted by a team whose undisputed superstar was wearing UA, and whose number two guy was wearing freaking ANTA. The most high-profile Nike face on that team was DRAYMOND.

If you don’t think a company that was losing hundreds of millions in market share - to an upstart, aggressive competitor who was taking them to the woodshed on high profile player signings - didn’t look to influence their marketability over the next half-decade, I don’t know what to tell you. That’s serious money.

[Urbanized]

And what Teo was talking about was EXACTLY what I meant. All that I believe probably happened was that the right people at Nike whispered to the right people at Roc Nation that it “sure would be great” if KD ended up signing with GSW.

Do I think they met with a KD and told him this? Absolutely not. All they had to do was convince every single bottom-feeder circling and feeding off of KD that he - and by extension THEY - would be better off with him on that team. The bottom-feeders did the rest. If you think those types of things don’t happen over dinner and elsewhere when it comes to situations like this I have a bridge to sell you.

[Urbanized]

I’ll just point out by the way that the $200 million Adidas contract with Harden that is referenced in that article is almost as big as the contract he just recently signed with Houston, and WAY MORE than the contract he was playing under at the time. Same with KD; his primary employer wasn’t his basketball team; it was Nike.

Superstar players aren’t really in the basketball business as much as they are in the BRAND business, and more often than not, the SHOE BUSINESS. How this influences the sport is NEVER discussed publicly because they’re all in the same game. TV, media, apparel manufacturers, athletes, teams, the league. They are all in bed together and are in the merchandise and advertising businesses, first and foremost.

[Urbanized]

And if you think Nike wasn’t feeling insecure about the visibility of its competitors at the time, check out THIS article from two weeks AFTER Durant bailed: https://www.theringer.com/2016/7/18/...y-1a6891950443

[Urbanized]

Oh, and then there was the time when Nike apparently got Candace Parker cut from the Olympic team because she wears Adidas.

Nah, they aren’t worried about that type of thing at all, and they are TOTALLY above using shady tactics to manipulatie outcomes for brand visibility reasons.

[Urbanized]

OK, last one and then I’ll stop: there’s also the ongoing FBI investigation involving the multiple college basketball programs (including Oklahoma State, Louisville, Arizona, Clemson, likely many other universities, the AAU, Adidas and PROBABLY Nike), whereby apparel manufacturers were allegedly funneling hundreds of thousands if not millions to high school basketball players and their families, obligating them to sign with said apparel manufacturers when they made the NBA.

It’s a filthy, competitive business, and LOTS of money is at stake. Who knows how long this has been going on and which players and their families have longstanding connections with said companies.

[Urbanized]

Sorry this thread got so sidetracked. My bad. Pete, if you have a better thread to which to move these posts, please do.

[HOT ROD]

I agree with the Seattle Sonics theory from Urbanized - I also had the exact same theory -, other than calling Seattle a "world class city". It definitely is not. It has world class amenities, but so does OKC.

I think world class starts with NY-Chicago-LA-SF-DC and probably ends in .....Miami-Phila-Dallas in the list of US cities and even the last three is a bit of a stretch on the global scale. Lets not get too carried away with Seattle's skyline and topography thinking that makes it a world class place. .....

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^^^
When I said that I was speaking from the imagined perspective of Seattle politicians and residents, and so I also included the extreme view I believe most of them had of OKC at the time - one which many of them still possess - which is that OKC is a dusty cowtown full of nothing but poor trailer trash. As in, “this team would never leave our world-class city and move to a dusty cowtown full of people who can’t even afford to buy tickets. It’s a bluff.”

Seattle residents, officials and even media repeated this type of viewpoint ad nauseam during the lead-up, the trial, the move and for years after, both in local outlets and even in social media and comments sections of local media in OKC. This of course completely rubbed people in OKC the wrong way, and many responded in kind with the Oklahoma City version of misinformation; that is the (incorrect) assessment that Seattle fans were bad fans or that the relocation had to do with attendance or lack thereof, none of which was true.

I do get and completely empathize with the extreme dislike that true Sonics fans developed for OKC, but again my point is that they were drawing their assumptions and opinions from an incomplete narrative, and in fact that was most of the problem for them. They never saw it coming because of a misunderstanding of the solid business reasoning behind the move, nor did they (care to) understand the economic and cultural realities of OKC as a city. The main reason they lost the team was due to a fatal arrogance.

That said, if Seattle isn’t world class it’s close. As you know first hand it definitely is a great city in a beautiful setting, with a strong international influence, plus tons of high-paying jobs and available entertainment and lifestyle options that we can only dream of in OKC. It really is a great city.

[ABryant]

Has anyone read the book?

[OkiePoke]

Has anyone read the book?

I bought it on Saturday. I plan on getting it signed this week. But before I read it, I must finish Killers of the Flower Moon which I'm hoping to finish this week.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^
Anxious to read that one also.

[bchris02]

http://headlightdata.com/fastest-gro...conomies-2017/

OKC was in the bottom 10 metro areas for economic growth in 2017 according to this.

[jonny d]

http://headlightdata.com/fastest-gro...conomies-2017/

OKC was in the bottom 10 metro areas for economic growth in 2017 according to this.

You missed that OKC was #1 for most improved large economy...but it figures.

[bchris02]

You missed that OKC was #1 for most improved large economy...but it figures.

OKC and Houston had the #1 and #2 worst economic growth in the country in 2016. So while both cities top the "most improved" list in 2017, overall they are still in the bottom ten. Oil prices are rising again though so that is positive news for OKC's economy.

[Bellaboo]

I bought it on Saturday. I plan on getting it signed this week. But before I read it, I must finish [I]Killers of the Flower Moon[/I] which I'm hoping to finish this week.

Great Eye Opening book.... Loved it.

[bucktalk]

I bought it on Saturday. I plan on getting it signed this week. But before I read it, I must finish Killers of the Flower Moon which I'm hoping to finish this week.

Killers of the Flower Moon...great book! I drove through several of the areas in Osage county which are mentioned in the book. Wow...what a history in Osage county.

[Bellaboo]

Killers of the Flower Moon...great book! I drove through several of the areas in Osage county which are mentioned in the book. Wow...what a history in Osage county.

I actually went to Grey Horse just to see the cemetery . Incredible how several tie in with the book. Also how they have ceramic pictures (of those entombed) on the monuments.

[Swake]

..

[gman11695]

One of my favorite podcasts just released an episode about the history and founding of OKC! Also talks briefly about the Thunder and OU. The online article features some pretty neat photos of the very early days of OKC.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episo...-start-a-city/

I think many on this forum would find this podcast fascinating like I do, so I suggest you check it out if you haven’t!

[dankrutka]

It’s a great podcast! Very cool. Sam Anderson so it’s similar to Boomtown topics.

[fromdust]

OKC climbing the list for the millennials.

"That's the second highest wage on our list after neighboring city San Jose, and the second largest wage increase after Oklahoma City," according to the report.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/this...ing-wages.html

[SEMIweather]

One of my favorite podcasts just released an episode about the history and founding of OKC! Also talks briefly about the Thunder and OU. The online article features some pretty neat photos of the very early days of OKC.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episo...-start-a-city/

I think many on this forum would find this podcast fascinating like I do, so I suggest you check it out if you haven’t!

Listened to this today, and it was excellent. Thanks for sharing!