http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sp...itchman+for+athletic+shoes+might+be+imaginary in sports The best pitchman for athletic shoes might be imaginary By Bryan Burwell Of the Post-Dispatch 02/11/2003 Sports Columnist Bryan Burwell Imagine for a moment that you are the CEO of one of the world's largest athletic shoe companies - Nike, adidas or Reebok - and your only job is to decide who will replace marketing icon Michael Jordan as the world's greatest pitchman. Your choices are wide and wonderful, diverse and intriguing, a pure slice of the American Dream. There is an incandescent hoop protege straight out of high school, a personable 7-foot-5 giant straight out of China, and a three-time NBA champion, perennial MVP candidate megastar who walks, talks and plays just like a young Michael Jordan. When given such choices, how can you possibly go wrong? So whom would you choose? This is precisely the question that is before all the major shoe giants, who must decide over the next few months who will be the perfect multi-million dollar front men for their sneakers, sweats and other athletic merchandise. How this all ultimately plays out could turn out to be a cautionary tale of everything right, wrong, wonderful and totally out of wack in today's sports marketplace. It's clear now that Jordan is finally going to leave the athletic stage at the end of this, his 14th and (I think) final professional basketball season. So everyone is looking for the next super salesman to take his place. But does that person really exist? How many athletes nowadays actually move product? No one moves the shoes like Jordan; however, Reebok believes Allen Iverson comes close. Adidas already has Tracy McGrady, but it just lost Kobe Bryant (he bought out the final year of his contact with adidas for $8 million), and is now looking to replace Kobe with 18-year-old high school player of the year LeBron James. Nike is also chasing James, who is expected to be the No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft, and a bidding war is in the offing. Asking price? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million for a kid who has never played one second of professional ball. If James turns out to be as good as advertised, the $25 million price tag will look like one of the most amazing bargains of all time. Remember, Iverson just signed a lifetime deal with Reebok for more than $100 million. Still, the smart money in play is on the Chinese giant, Yao Ming, and the Los Angeles Lakers megastar Bryant. Yao has catapulted onto the scene as the new ultimate athletic pitchman. Within only four months in the United States, the Houston Rockets' rookie is pulling in $10 million in off-court endorsements, including deals with Apple computers, Visa and Nike. But his Nike deal expires soon, and the word has come down from the upper levels of Nike that Yao must be re-signed. Yao won't move product to the hip-hop generation that likes its athletes with a decidedly more urban edge, but this is a global marketplace, too, and there are several hundred million folks in the Asian marketplace who buy sneakers, and Yao is a big wow over there. Which leaves us with Bryant, who is no doubt the game's biggest endorsement free agent. Okay, what's Bryant's worth? He's averaging 28.6 points a game for the three-time defending world champs. He plays in Los Angeles, the second-biggest media market in the U.S. He was the All-Star Game's leading vote getter (1.47 million fan votes), which speaks to his popularity. He is good looking, smooth, speaks fluent Italian, and is hauling in at least $10 million in endorsement deals with McDonald's, Spalding and Sprite. But ask adidas if Bryant sells sneakers. His last sneaker - KOBETWO - flopped miserably, so why would you risk $75 million to $100 million on him? You probably wouldn't, which is why Reebok has some make-believe clown named Terry Tate tackling folks into file cabinets and Nike has a pasty streaker running around in his birthday suit and a pair of Nike Shox on a soccer pitch. Who needs real salesmen when make-believe works just as well? E-mail: bburwell@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-340-8185
