TMTM
SoCal Prep Recruiting Report & News
The
Complete "60 Minutes" Transcript
"There's No Business Like Shoe Business"-- (October 27,
1997)
Or "Pat Barrett's Not Christopher Columbus"
A few folks have asked for this transcript (in e-mails here, and on other sites as well) so here it is, the complete (at least as complete as I could get it) transcript of the broadcast aired on Sunday, October 26, 1997. While it's not as good as watching the real thing, for now it will have to do for those of you who can't get your hands on a tape.
Opening Shot: Title scene. "There's No Business Like Shoe Business."
Leslie Stahl (seated in chair, with image of large pair of Nike shoes tied and hanging from the knot like a pair of first baby shoes):
Nobody, not the Bulls, Lakers or the Knicks is more interested in finding the next Michael Jordan than Nike. That's because the current Michael Jordan has produced billions of dollars in profits for Nike. So much money that he's just been given his own division in the company. So Nike and its competitors like adidas are searching the country, searching for the hot NBA rookies, putting their shoes on the best college seniors. But what amazed us is that they're also going after "basketball babies".
Cut to Stahl sitting cross legged on a basketball gym floor. Next to her, stretching, is 6'10" Tyson Chandler. He has a large tattoo on his left arm of what looks like an Arizona Sun Devil mascot (hard to make out on the tape).
Stahl: "How old were you when they started singling you out?"
Chandler: "I was in about the fifth grade."
Cut to shots of Tyson running, jamming, stretching. Stahl (voice over):
Tyson Chandler just finished the eighth grade. He's 14 years old. He and his teammates are on the Southern California All-Stars, sponsored, supported and equipped by Nike.
Cut to Stahl seated with Chandler and Keilon Fortune on the gym floor:
Stahl: "You're all wearing Nike."
Chandler: "Yeah."
Fortune : "Yeah"
Stahl (to Fortune): "You have Nike on too."
Fortune: "Yeah."
Stahl: "You're 'Nike Men'."
Fortune and Tyson: "All Nike."
Cut. Stahl (voice over):
All Nike, all the time. Shirts, shorts, shoes, especially shoes. Why does Nike care so much about putting its shoes on Tyson Chandler? Here's why. In these days if you're really big and really good (video of Tyson stretching, running, shooting and dunking), Nike and all the shoe companies are after you no matter how young you are.
Cut to close up of Sonny Vaccaro.
Stahl to Vaccaro: "How young?"
Vaccaro: "Oh, 8, 9, 10, 11 years old."
Stahl (voice over):
Sonny Vaccaro used to be in charge of finding new basketball talent for Nike. Now he does the same thing for arch-rival adidas.
Stahl to Vaccaro: "What does adidas get out of you going out and finding some brilliantly talented 10 year old basketball player? What's in it for the company."
Vaccaro: "The stock goes higher, the profits are better. . ."
Stahl: "Why, if you find some 10 year old?"
Vaccaro: "Because what you do is you bring this person along, and hopefully he stays in the 'family'."
Stahl: "So you're looking for the 10 year old who's going to be Michael Jordan when he grows up."
Vaccaro: "Yes, we all are."
Stahl: "Then he'll wear adidas?"
Vaccaro : "Hopefully."
Stahl: "And then all the kids in the country will wear adidas?"
Vaccaro: "That would be very nice."
Cut to Nike Camp. Stahl (voice-over):
In the quest to find the next Michael Jordan before he starts shaving, Nike and adidas have turned the summer into a huge basketball bazaar, spending millions of dollars to corral every kid with a decent jump shot, betting one or two of them will develop into superstars and human billboards.
As soon as kids are finished with their junior high or high school seasons in the spring, coaches armed with free shoes are waiting to recruit them for Nike summer teams or adidas summer teams that will play all the way through August.
Cut to shot of unidentified coach talking to a group of very young and smallish players.
Coach: "Move your ass and rebound. . . that's pathetic. . ."
Stahl (voice over):
That guy is a Nike coach. . . Sonny Vaccaro has his own network of adidas coaches, all trying to find and recruit basketball babies.
Stahl to Vaccaro: "The competition really is between you, adidas and Nike. It's almost a head to head grudge match."
Vaccaro: "It is."
Stahl (voice over):
The competition is truly head to head in the first week of July, when Nike brings the cream of its crop, the best summer team players, to an all star camp in Indianapolis. On the very same days adidas holds its all star camp in New Jersey. The companies fight all year long to lure the best young players in the country to their camp, and to keep them away from the other camp.
Cut to close up of Bob Gibbons.
Stahl to Gibbons: "Is this thing out of control?
Gibbons: "It's way out of control. And I don't know how you get it back in control."
Cut to Gibbons in gym, scouting. Stahl (voice over):
Bob Gibbons has spent his life watching kids play basketball. He's a talent scout, and his newsletter rating high school players is a recruiting bible for the college coaches.
Gibbons: "I mean, kids today play more games than the NBA."
Stahl: "Is that true?"
Gibbons: "That is true."
Stahl: "Am I going too far to say that they're almost semi-pros?"
Gibbons: "I don't think you're going far enough. I mean, no one really takes the time to say, 'What are we doing to these kids'?"
Cut to pictures of casinos in Vegas. Stahl (voice over):
What they're doing, among other things, is taking them to Las Vegas. Just this last summer, Nike and adidas sponsored youth tournaments in Vegas. Hundreds of kids as young as 12, showing their skills on the court, and strutting their stuff on the strip.
Stahl to Vaccaro: "So how can a 14 year old just be wandering around Las Vegas?"
Vaccaro: "Because that's what they're allowed to do, Les. . ."
Cut to shot of a large guy, with gray hair and a rather large stomach. He's wearing a whistle and pacing the sidelines, giving orders to some players.
Stahl (voice over):
One of the most successful shoe company summer league coaches, is Pat Barrett , Tyson Chandler's coach on the Southern California All Stars. Pat doesn't work for any school or recreation department; he's paid by Nike.
Stahl to Barrett: "I read somewhere that you get $100,000 form Nike. That's not true?"
Barrett: No. . . No. . . it's. . ."
Stahl: "Somewhere in the neighborhood?"
Barrett : "In the neighborhood. . ."
Stahl (voice over):
For Nike money in the neighborhood of a hundred grand, and another reported $50,000 in free equipment, Pat's job is to find promising young players and brand them with the swoosh.
Stahl to Barrett: "Tyson--is he going to be one of the really great basketball players?"
Barrett: "I think so."
Cut to Tyson and his mother sitting at a table. Soft drinks are on the table in tall glasses.
Stahl (voice over):
Tyson's mother Vernie, says he's always stood out from a crowd.
Mrs. Chandler: "I remember when he started the third grade, he was probably about 5'-8", and he had problems sitting up at the desk because his legs were so long, he was so tall."
Stahl to Tyson: "Tyson, did the other kids ever tease you because you were so big?"
Tyson: "Yeah, all through elementary I got teased because everybody thought I flunked like four times. When I was in, like the third or fourth grade, everybody thought I should have been in Junior High with the 8th graders. . . "
Stahl: "Well you're smiling today. . it wasn't funny then?"
Tyson: "No it wasn't funny then. . ."
Stahl: "It was painful" [a statement not a question].
Tyson: "Yeah, it was."
Cut to Tyson stepping out of Barrett's van and walking into a gym.
Stahl (voice over):
If it was hard for Tyson to handle classmates calling him a dummy, imagine him trying to cope with coaches and colleges and shoe companies all trying to get a piece of him in grammar school.
Cut to Tyson showing off his recruiting letters: "These are letters. . ."
Stahl (voice over):
At an age when the only mail most kids get is birthday party invitations, Tyson got recruitment letters from UCLA, Arizona and Syracuse. They want him for later. . . Nike has him now.
Cut to Tyson showing his shoe closet: "These are some of my basketball shoes. . . "
Stahl (voice over):
Nike is betting that giving Tyson all these $150 a pair shoes now, will keep him loyal when and if he makes it to the big time. And Nike is covering that bet with far more than just free shoes. This summer Pat Barrett used Nike money to outfit Tyson head to toe, to fly him to basketball showcases around the country , to feed and house him, and to act as coach, chaperone, and stage mother.
Cut to Pat Barrett talking to Tyson before a tournament: "Be aggressive, move your feet, let the game come to you and everything will be all right."
Cut to Gibbons:
Stahl to Bob Gibbons: "Is it corrupting?"
Gibbons: "Yes it's corrupting, in my opinion."
Stahl: "What are the values of these people?"
Gibbons: "Tyson Chandler will not have to worry about what he wears to school, ever, because he will be given all the attire and apparel that he will need. Now what does this do to a youngster? I don't think anything positive comes of it."
Cut to Nike Camp and pictures of guys and coaches walking around, sitting, etc.
Stahl (voice over):
The folks at Nike and at adidas insist they're helping kids. Sure they may focus on a kid like Tyson, but they say that in the process their youth basketball programs are keeping hundreds of others off the streets and out of gangs and putting good shoes on the feet of kids who otherwise wouldn't have them.
Cut back to Barrett.
Pat Barrett to Stahl: "These kids don't wear shoes out, these kids' feet are growing, so they go from an 8 to a 9 to a 9 1/2 so you're probably spending $500, $600 on shoes a year, and these inner city kids can't afford that."
Cut to Close-up of Nike Spokesman.
Spokesman: "It's important for us to provide wonderful opportunities for kids to play great basketball. . ."
Stahl (voice over):
Meet Ralph Green, a Nike corporate executive. To hear him talk you'd think Nike wasn't even in the shoe business.
Green: "Our intensity and our passion for what we do is born out of . . .is from the sport of basketball outward."
Stahl: "Oh, c'mon, it's selling shoes."
Green: "Now, hold on Leslie. . ."
Stahl: "Mr. Green. . . It's selling shoes. Everybody knows it's selling shoes. . . "
Green: "It's a very simple formula for us, and it really does start with performing, and being passionate about the game first, and the athletes first. . .
Stahl: "Selling shoes first. . . ."
Green: " No, no no no. It's the game first, and the passion for the game, and understanding what athletes want. . . "
Cut to Gibbons.
Stahl to Gibbons: "This is what they're trying to promote: That Nike loves the game. That's the image they want to project."
Gibbons: "I don't see them giving away their product to schools that do not have good players. If you were to do a study of this you would find that they love the schools that have the top players the best."
Cut back to Barrett in gym. Stahl (voice over):
And Pat Barrett is far more willing than his bosses at Nike are to admit that this game is all about selling shoes.
Stahl to Pat Barrett: "What's in it for Nike to have Tyson Chandler be a Nike kid?
Pat Barrett: "If he's the best player at 14, all the kids see what he wears, they want to go out and buy that stuff."
Cut back to Nike and adidas summer camp shots.
Stahl (voice over):
That's why they run all the summer leagues and summer camps and tournaments. But they are just part of the Nike and adidas networks. Both companies also have their hooks in high school basketball teams around the country. There are more than a hundred Nike high schools and a hundred adidas high schools that get free shoes, free uniforms and free equipment, and often cash for the coach. In return, Nike and adidas get exposure, loyalty and a pipeline for promising players.
Cut to Tyson and Mrs. Chandler
Stahl: "I hear you're going to a new school next year."
Tyson: "Yes, Dominguez. . ."
Stahl: "Dominguez, it's a Nike school."
Tyson: "Yeah, it is."
Cut to exterior shots of Dominguez High, Compton.
Stahl (voice over):
People in Compton, California may think Dominguez High is a public school, but because its coach has a record of producing star players, in the basketball world, it's a "Nike school".
Cut to Vaccaro.
Stahl to Sonny Vaccaro: "Why don't they just make the school he's in now [in San Bernardino] a "Nike school"?
Sonny Vaccaro: "Because it's not high profile enough. The school that he will go to will be one of the top high schools in America.
Stahl: "Top high schools in America for basketball. You don't mean academically."
Vaccaro: "No, no no."
Stahl: "You never mean academically."
Vaccaro: "No. This has nothing to do with academics as this level."
Cut to Tyson and his mother:
Stahl: "And it's pretty far away from here. It's over an hour away. How're you going to get there every day?"
Tyson: "We'll probably move."
Vernie Chandler: "But right now we're just going to take it one day at a time. I'm going to make a sacrifice to get him there. . ."
Stahl: "Driving an hour every day?"
Vernie Chandler: "I'm willing to do that, you know, for Tyson."
Cut to Green, the Nike exec.
Stahl: "He is moving to another high school from where he lives. He's moving to a Nike high school. This kid's surrounded."
Green: "He's surrounding himself with opportunities to play . Tyson's trying to make the best for himself. And he's making smart moves for himself."
Stahl: "He's 14 yrs old. His coach is telling what to do. What does he know. And he didn't orchestrate it himself, he's a child."
Green: "Don't sell Tyson short. I mean, please. . ."
Stahl: "But he's 14 years old. . . "
Green: "But he does know basketball."
Cut to shot of Tyson dunking against CMH 76'ers this last summer.
Stahl (voice over):
That may be all he needs to know if he's as good as everyone says. More and more, the best teenage players are turning pro right from high school. The most recent example, Tracy McGrady. Last year a high school star at the adidas camp, this year a first round NBA pick, with a $12million deal to wear and endorse adidas shoes.
Cut to Sonny Vaccaro: "Now what that legend does is that every kid that came to camp this year wanted to be Tracy McGrady."
Cut to Bob Gibbons: "And I think that may indirectly prevent them from really studying and applying themselves in grade school to get an education."
Stahl to Bob Gibbons: "And the vast majority of those kids aren't going to make it in basketball, and then they're not going to have basketball or an education."
Gibbons: "Exactly. When the ball stops bouncing what do they do?"
Cut to Tyson dunking and running some more.
Stahl (voice over):
The ball is really just beginning to bounce for Tyson Chandler. But the expectations game is already well under way. There are already bets that Tyson will go pro after his sophomore or junior year in high school.
Cut to Barrett in the gym, whistle around his neck during practice again, saying to Stahl: "All the college coaches saw him play this summer, and all of the top ones don't think he's going to play a day of college basketball. That's their opinion."
Cut to Tyson in the gym (same as the opening shot, but no Fortune in scene).
Stahl to Tyson: "It must really be a lot of pressure to be only 14 years old and have the coaches and everybody telling you, or the coaches writing to you. . ."
Tyson: "Yeah."
Cut to Mrs. Chandler.
Stahl: "Do you worry sometimes about what this is doing to your kid?"
Mrs. Chandler:" Yes I do, I worry because I don't want him to move too fast. I still want him to be a kid."
Stahl: "He is a kid."
Vernie: "Yeah, but a lot of people overlook that because of his height."
Cut to Gibbons.
Stahl: "Tyson's mother is worried that things are moving too fast for her son."
Gibbons: "Then why doesn't she just say 'no.. . He's my son. . . I'm going to keep him here in San Bernardino, California, and let him go through the normal process. . .' "
Stahl: "You think he'd be discovered anyway."
Gibbons: "Oh, he's already discovered. If you're 6-10 coming out of the 8th grade the whole world knows. . .I mean Pat Barrett wasn't, you know, Christopher Columbus. . . The world knew who Tyson Chandler was. . ."
Stahl: "If Tyson didn't go through the summer program, he'd still end up in the pros? He'd still be a star?"
Bob Gibbons: "If he's good enough. . . The shoe companies should stay with what they do best, professional sports, and leave the amateurs alone."
©This site copyright SoCalHoops 1997
All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
Contact: jegesq@SoCalHoops.com
