Foot Soldiers

Adidas footprints are all over the recent hiring of Ben Howland as UCLA basketball coach. The sports-apparel giant is in the fourth year of a six-year, $18.95-million contract with UCLA and had an existing relationship with Howland, paying a large portion of his salary at Pittsburgh, his previous school.

Sonny Vaccaro, an Adidas employee and an influential figure in basketball for more than 20 years, has longstanding ties to Howland and supplied UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero with a list of candidates.

So why isn’t there an uproar?

Because those with inside knowledge of the situation say the shoe company did not pressure the school into the hire -- for reasons ranging from the school’s best interest, to corporate strategy, to the past experiences of other schools with similar shoe deals.

Exploring those explanations provides a glimpse into the complex, lucrative and sometimes contradictory link between shoe companies seeking marketing exposure and athletic departments seeking revenue.

Stepping Lightly

Shoe companies pay schools for exclusivity and the prospect of hefty profits not only from the sale of shoes, but of caps, shirts and other apparel made by the company and bearing the school logo.

In return, the school is expected to field winning teams that appear on television, qualify for the postseason and generate a large, loyal fan base.

“UCLA is an icon school, a destination point for people visiting Los Angeles and for people living there,” Adidas spokesman Travis Gonzolez said. “That’s part of our partnership with them. The school has almost a cult following, and it’s enhanced by a winning tradition.”

So when the Bruin basketball team went 10-19 after 14 consecutive 20-victory seasons, Adidas suddenly wasn’t getting its money’s worth.

UCLA, of course, wants to win for reasons beyond its relationship with a shoe company. Coach Steve Lavin was fired March 17 and replaced April 3 by Howland, whose departure from Pittsburgh to UCLA did not necessarily benefit Adidas.

The hire removed a successful coach from the company’s only Big East Conference foothold and placed him at a school that already wears Adidas gear.

UCLA would have served Adidas better by choosing one of the others on Vaccaro’s list -- Utah’s Rick Majerus, Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Marquette’s Tom Crean or Missouri’s Quin Snyder, coaches with Nike or Reebok deals.

By coming to UCLA, those coaches would have changed allegiances to Adidas.

“Taking a coach from a successful situation like Pittsburgh and moving him to a school we already had under contract, it doesn’t make sense for us to have involvement,” Gonzolez said.

Athletic directors at schools under contract with Adidas say the company does not have a reputation for exerting influence in coaching hires.

Notre Dame is one of only five schools besides UCLA with an Adidas arrangement that provides cash to the athletic department and gear to the entire program. The last two Notre Dame basketball coaches, Mike Brey and Matt Doherty, came from schools with strong Nike ties, and Irish Athletic Director Kevin White said Adidas stayed out of the process.

“We have a very special relationship with Adidas and Sonny Vaccaro,” White said. “However, Adidas has never endeavored to influence a coaching hire at Notre Dame.”

That Adidas apparently did not attempt to strong-arm UCLA into hiring a coach of its choosing is revealing of the delicate relationship between the shoe companies and schools.

Cash-strapped athletic departments eagerly accept free gear to outfit their teams and money to supplement coaching salaries while taking pains to dispel the notion that their integrity is compromised.

Nothing irks Guerrero more than the suggestion that he sold UCLA’s soul for soles.

“The notion that Adidas had any influence in Ben’s hiring is completely false,” he said. “Sonny Vaccaro had no input.”

Providing a list of candidates, however, does qualify as input and accepting the list blurred perception with reality. It doesn’t help that Vaccaro relishes the attention and says little to discourage the impression that he wields clout.

“I expressed to everybody that [Lavin] was inadequate even though he was paid by Adidas,” Vaccaro said. “And I supported the hiring of Ben or another coach with his qualities.

“But I did not rank the coaches on the list or indicate a preference. You can’t take over an academic institution and hold it hostage because you pay them. That would be worst PR you could have.”

Retracing Steps

To players and coaches from youth leagues to the NBA, the face of Adidas is the charismatic Vaccaro, a Pittsburgh native and Calabasas resident in his 60s whose tentacles extend nationwide.

He showers teams with free gear and cuts deals with coaches, padding their paychecks. In exchange, the coaches outfit their players and make speaking appearances on behalf of Adidas.

Vaccaro also helps assemble deals with athletic departments. Unlike Nike, which has a crowded stable of schools, Adidas has all-school deals only with UCLA, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Arizona State, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

“They can do what they want with the money,” he said. “But, absolutely, it is implied that some of the money goes to help compensate coaches.”

Vaccaro also has a longstanding reputation as a keen judge of the talent of coaches and players.

He initially worked for Nike, and in 1984 persuaded the fledgling company to sign an NBA rookie named Michael Jordan to an endorsement contract modest by today’s standards -- $500,000 plus a small percentage of shoe revenues. Nike developed Air Jordans, profits went through the roof and the company sped past industry leader Converse and eventually generated nearly $10 billion a year in sales.

More than a decade later, Vaccaro scored again, this time on behalf of Adidas, culminating longstanding relationships with Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady by signing them to lucrative endorsement deals out of high school.

Competition is fierce, especially with Nike’s George Raveling, a former coach who is as omnipresent as Vaccaro. A subtext in the shoe battles is the animosity between the two men, who once were close friends.

Players and coaches swear allegiance to either Nike or Adidas, never both. And the courtship for players begins early.

Howland and Vaccaro became friends in the late 1980s. Howland worked at Nike camps in Las Vegas run by Vaccaro, who was so impressed by the young coach that when Howland got his first head coaching job at Northern Arizona, Vaccaro -- by that time with Adidas -- struck a deal with the small Big Sky Conference school.

“Sonny was really kind to help our program with product, and he even gave me a little money,” Howland said. “That was unheard of at a school that size. That was just him being supportive of me because of our friendship.”

Five years later, Vaccaro supported Howland for the opening at Pittsburgh and to this day considers the hire one of his proudest moments.

Steve Pederson, the Pittsburgh athletic director at the time, says Vaccaro had little to do with the hire, that those responsible for boosting Howland were Majerus and Kevin O’Neill, then coach at Northwestern.

Pederson is now athletic director at Nebraska. Like Guerrero and White, he makes it clear Adidas does not influence coaching hires while being careful not to criticize Vaccaro.

Stepping lightly works both ways. Shoe companies tread softly around athletic directors, and athletic directors know better than to bite the feet that feed them.

“I’ve never had any interference from a shoe company,” Pederson said. “I’ve never heard of a situation where that happened.... I can’t imagine anyone letting that affect their judgment on a coaching hire.”

Still, the notion that money fosters influence is not a new one. And Vaccaro’s own comments have fueled some of the speculation. His most widely circulated quote came two years ago before the Knight Commission, a collection of university presidents and others that examined the state of college athletics.

“The biggest sin you ever made was taking our money,” he told the commission. “You sold your souls.” To which Chase Peterson, president emeritus of Utah, wryly replied: “Everybody would wish that Sonny and Nike and Reebok and Adidas would go away -- and they would leave us the money before they go.”

Step by Step

Guerrero took Vaccaro’s list, but he insists he didn’t need help to identify Howland for UCLA. They had met before. In 1997, Guerrero was the athletic director at UC Irvine and was looking for a coach; Howland had just led Northern Arizona to 21 victories in his third season.

Pat Douglass was Guerrero’s choice for the Irvine job and Howland -- who also failed to land an opening at UC Santa Barbara in 1998 -- ended up at Pittsburgh, bursting to prominence by winning consensus national coach-of-the-year honors in 2001-02, when he won 29 games and advanced to the Sweet 16.

Guerrero, who is in his first full year at UCLA, has been watching all the while, noting the toughness and selflessness of Pittsburgh’s play under Howland.

Guerrero began the hiring process by seeking advice from legendary former UCLA coach John Wooden and other respected former Bruin coaches and players.

“As you would surmise, [Wooden] would never recommend a candidate,” Guerrero said. “We talked about characteristics. He did mention a few programs. It really affirmed the direction we were heading.”

As he collected input, Guerrero heard the same names come up -- and Howland was at the forefront.

“One thing that kept recurring in conversation [with his advisors] was who they respected and the kinds of things they wanted at UCLA,” Guerrero said. “They yearned for a hard-working, fundamentally sound, disciplined team.”

Vaccaro and Raveling each contacted Guerrero after Lavin was fired, relaying the interest of several coaches as intermediaries because coaches under contract with other schools didn’t want to call themselves.

“In Sonny’s case, the call was to provide me a list of coaches who contacted him,” Guerrero said. “The manner in which he presented the list was professional. He did not lobby for anyone and did not rank anyone.”

With the assistance of associate athletic director Betsy Stephenson, Guerrero contacted about more than a dozen candidates through intermediaries. A notebook was assembled with profiles of about 10 prospective coaches, and several were interviewed during the two-week search.

Howland was widely regarded as a favorite the moment it became apparent Lavin’s hold on the UCLA job was tenuous. During the season, even Lavin mentioned Howland as a likely successor.

But Guerrero said he did not decide on Howland in a single moment. Nor was his mind made up months ago. Rather, he said, the 45-year-old coach with lifelong West Coast ties grew on him during the hiring process.

Howland’s record of swiftly turning around losing programs at Northern Arizona and Pittsburgh speaks for itself.

“I earned the opportunity to be the coach at UCLA with a lot of hard work,” he said. “I built up two programs that were down and out and had great success at both places.”

Vaccaro said he did nothing more than furnish the list for fear his friendship with Howland would cause Guerrero to look elsewhere. He and Guerrero spoke three times during the coaching search.

“Ben deserved this job on his own merit,” Vaccaro said.

Howland pursued it hard, arranging for a private jet (through a Pitt booster) to take him to Santa Barbara two days after Pittsburgh was eliminated in the Sweet 16 and informing Guerrero through an intermediary he was on his way.

“I am the one who really facilitated this happening so quickly,” Howland said. “I was excited and wanted the job and didn’t want it to drag out. I wanted to know if I was a serious candidate.”

Negotiations were swift and Howland was announced as coach four days after the initial meeting. His $900,000 a year contract includes the same $195,000 from Adidas that Lavin received from the shoe company. Peterson, the former Pittsburgh athletic director, believes the right choice was made.

“UCLA hired the best coach in the country,” he said. “I’ve never been around a basketball coach like Ben. UCLA doesn’t know what it has yet.”

The Next Step

Now that Howland is on the job, there is speculation Vaccaro might nudge top recruits in his direction.

Vaccaro says that won’t happen.

“I lose my credibility with the kids if I push them to Adidas schools,” he said. A cursory look at players who come out of Vaccaro’s ABCD camp shows no path beaten to Adidas schools.

Carmelo Anthony, Gerry McNamara, Billy Edelin and Hakim Warrick from the Syracuse national championship team went to ABCD camp yet attended a school with a Nike contract. Vaccaro watched the Final Four with the parents of Wooden Award winner T.J. Ford of Texas. Ford is another star who attended ABCD camp but chose a Nike school.

Among the UCLA players on last season’s roster, Jason Kapono and Ray Young went to ABCD camp and T.J. Cummings, Dijon Thompson, Cedric Bozeman and Andre Patterson attended Nike camp.

It is the cozy relationships Vaccaro has with top players that worry colleges. And not so much because of concerns about impropriety. There is a fear that shoe companies will cease giving money to schools because NBA players are more effective billboards.

“That day is coming, and we’ll let the NCAA pay the bills for shoes and gear,” Vaccaro said. “I don’t need the schools in Florida when I have [Orlando Magic star] Tracy McGrady to wrap up the whole state.”

UCLA plans to present Adidas with a proposal in a few weeks that would extend the contract beyond its current 2005 expiration. The deal would have the blessing of Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who views the money as easing the burden on taxpayers.

And if the arrangement requires UCLA to fend off criticism that a shoe company had a say in a coaching hire, if it prompted Dan Guerrero to accept a wish list from Sonny Vaccaro, if it caused whispers that Ben Howland’s career was fueled by his friendship with Vaccaro, well, that’s the price of doing business with Adidas.