@JayHawkFanToo
LOL!
Of course adidas is bailing out of the NBA to concentrate on the college and of course it was sucking air on the NBA threads.
The other reason adidas pulled out was to put some more pressure on the Nike-Jordan and Nike-Nike fissure.
The Nike-Jordan folks will want to jump in on the NBA thread contract, because the Jordan brand is so heavily NBA oriented and could make so much money at home and abroad from doing so.
The Nike-Nike division will be wanting to lay off, because Nike appears to be in a mode of trying to plateau Nike-Jordan and grow Nike-Nike to get more control over their business, IMHO.
It was a smart move all around by adidas, whether they’re desparate, or sufficiently backed.
You have to understand that adidas has apparently just taken the worst that the giant has to dish out in the NBA and college. It has apparently shut the player spigot to a drip to adidas programs in college and apparently stopped the theft at the NBA level since Wiggins, who “totally coincidentally” got side-tracked into the media black hole of chainsaw ice sculptures, Minneapolis St. Paul. And Embiid, who they were probably worrying about more than Wigs, is out in the injury ethers. adidas appears barely able to supply its five lonely big time programs with 3 stacks and Nike appears to be sewing 5-10 stack programs to dominate conferences faster than mushrooms coming up off last years spore around a dead Douglas Fir in a Pacific Northwest coniferous rainforest between Eugene and the coast. The giant has really appeared to flex its North American muscles and god only knows what the giant might be doing in strategically targeted overseas markets in other sports. But adidas has had that money management outfit (name forgotten) that took a very big ownership position quite some time ago now and that outfit among other things reputedly manages untraceable bail out monies, and so as long as that deep pockets investment management firm backs adidas (I haven’t checked for a year or so, so I can’t say if that firm is still invested or not), we should soon see adidas go on the offensive again. Take their best shot, let them reveal their strategy, and then strike back.
We will know about how serious adidas is if Self stays at KU and Donovan goes to the NBA. Donovan is Nike-Nike, and if he is washing his hands of Nike-Nike in college, it means that another round of shoewar may be about to break out.
If Self jumps to OKC, which seems very unlikely now, it could mean the adidas movement is throwing in the sponge.
Fun thing to watch.
Glad I haven’t got any money at risk in it.
Rock Chalk!