http://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?id=6357598 Follow the money. With the departure of Keyshawn Johnson, ESPN is down to 1 employee with a deal with Adidas, while conversely having 15 employees with Nike contracts as of their most recent publishing - as part of their commitment to transparency, which they conveniently stopped doing.. Maybe it was when Nike CEO Mark Parker joined Disney as part of their board of directors in 2016.
Also, Nike is not renewing their contract with the NBA, so by that same logic are they going to stop showing the NBA on ESPN altogether?
And has anyone else noticed who is strangely not in the news much this year vs last, since he left Nike in the Fall
"'Obviously I’m going to side with Nike no matter who it is,' he said. “It’s just, it’s family when you talk about Nike, and I’m always on their side no matter what the situation is'" -LeBron James
Mark Parker didn't join Disney until halfway through last season. Also know that Nike encouraged KD to go there to shut that hype train down. Was spoken about by Ethan Strauss on a TrueHoop pod. These top level athletes make more from their shoe deals than they do their teams. Also we must keep separate ESPN and non-Disney properties.