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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Scott and I'm Evan Novi Williams, and this

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Speaker 1: is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast where we tried

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Speaker 1: to do it as best as Bar like. We I know,

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Speaker 1: I don't sound to the entire audience. I sound nothing

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Speaker 1: like Bar He's the best. Sounds great, we know it.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately Michael is not here today. We miss you, Michael,

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Speaker 1: but today we begin with Evan. The n c a

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Speaker 1: A on trial really could have a material impact on

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Speaker 1: the business of college sports. Yeah, it's funny. One week

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Speaker 1: after the end of the anti trust lawsuit against the

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Speaker 1: n c A out in California, come back East Coast

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Speaker 1: in New York. UH, the start of the FBI, the

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Speaker 1: federal investigation and the charges into bribery and college basketball

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Speaker 1: h Jim Ghatto, the Adidas executive, two others, including one

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Speaker 1: of whom was an Adidas consultant. UH. Their trial start

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Speaker 1: today in New York. This was a huge deal last October, UM,

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Speaker 1: and then we didn't here's if there isn't much about it. UM.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to argue that in the wake

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Speaker 1: of of everything the FBI revealed, which was essentially rampant

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Speaker 1: bribery in terms of middlemen and shoe executives, and college

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Speaker 1: is paying for talent to come to their schools. Not

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Speaker 1: much has changed. Yeah, it's I don't think there's been

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Speaker 1: a material change on college basketball quite yet. However, Uh,

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Speaker 1: this is gonna be an interesting trial from what I understand.

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Speaker 1: One of the arguments that that that Ghatto's lawyer is

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Speaker 1: going to put forward is that it's hard to change.

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Speaker 1: To charge him with something that everybody is doing. You

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Speaker 1: know that that he is not an outlier breaking the system.

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Speaker 1: He is just one piece. I get pulled over with

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Speaker 1: radar doing a hundred, I don't think I can go

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Speaker 1: before the judge and say, but I was only doing

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Speaker 1: the same speed as everybody else. Sure, but if if

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Speaker 1: you're on a highway and the speed limit is is

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Speaker 1: twenty five and everyone's doing sixty, you you would have

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Speaker 1: an argument to say, listen that the speed limit is insane,

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Speaker 1: right like it? It is stupid to mean, yes you might. Yeah. Sure,

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's the best argument, And I don't

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Speaker 1: think either of us are experts enough to understand exac

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Speaker 1: how exactly how all that works. But um, it does

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Speaker 1: seem as though in the trial, you know, the schools

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Speaker 1: are presented as victims. And my guess is that at

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Speaker 1: some point along the line, Uh, this is one of

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Speaker 1: these defense attorneys, He's gonna say, Look, it's insane to

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Speaker 1: think that, you know, the University of Kansas or Louisville

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Speaker 1: is a victim here when they are the ones benefiting

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Speaker 1: from these guys coming onto campus and may in fact

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Speaker 1: being the ones pulling the strings in the first place.

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Speaker 1: But is there outsized influence from Nike, from you A,

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Speaker 1: from Reebuk, you, you name it, in within the athletic department,

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Speaker 1: which we know has tremendous sway and influence within the university. Totally. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: depending on the shoe sponsor and depending on the school. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there are there are places where I mean, Adidas and

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Speaker 1: Louisville are affect example, you know they were joined at

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Speaker 1: the hip. Louisville was i mean for for a while

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Speaker 1: and probably will continue to be kind of the the

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Speaker 1: main the main staple of of Adidas's sponsorship. You know

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Speaker 1: that a lot of the stuff that Adidas was rolling

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Speaker 1: out they were trying first on the Louisville campus. You know,

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Speaker 1: they have they had a student center there, you know,

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Speaker 1: working on innovation and relationships like that, and that one

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Speaker 1: specifically is at the heartier And if you think about

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Speaker 1: the fallout of what happened back in October, Rick Pattino

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Speaker 1: is really the only coach to my head, coach to

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Speaker 1: my knowledge who who's come come down as a result

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Speaker 1: of this. Um Mark Church, the athletic director at Louisville,

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Speaker 1: also lost his job. Um that's kind of the place

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Speaker 1: where it's been, it's been felt the biggest impact outside

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Speaker 1: of that, how much has happened yet? Well, speaking of

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Speaker 1: the aggrieved one, j R. Smith, he feels picked up.

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Speaker 1: Poor j Poor j R. Smith is feeling picked up,

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Speaker 1: poor j R. Smith. You don't You don't hear that

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Speaker 1: very often. Well, that's I'm saying this is this would

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Speaker 1: be his take on what's happening. If you saw his tweet,

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Speaker 1: you know, Oh, they don't pick out anybody else but

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Speaker 1: me only I would have to face this, and it's

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Speaker 1: he's got a tattoo with the Supreme logo on his leg,

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Speaker 1: the clothing company. And it's pretty straightforward. In the collective

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Speaker 1: bargaining agreement, which means the deal signed between your union

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Speaker 1: j R. And the NBA, that can't do that. And

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Speaker 1: yet Mr Smith is unhappy? Am I am I correct

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Speaker 1: in remembering? Didn't Stephan Marbury put the logo of his

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Speaker 1: shoes on his head as a as a tattoo? I

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Speaker 1: don't remember. I do remember he certainly. If he did,

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Speaker 1: he certainly didn't have to come my favorite one ever

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Speaker 1: years ago. And man, I'm dating myself. Richard Hamilton's of

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Speaker 1: the Detroit Pistons got his hair done in the tire

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Speaker 1: tread of a of a Goodyear tire. That was the

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Speaker 1: promotion and I think they even want some awards with it.

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Speaker 1: That smart that that no, I mean, that's okay because

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Speaker 1: doesn't say good Year, but everybody was talking about and

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Speaker 1: of course good Year got mentioned because Rip came out

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Speaker 1: with like the tire tracks in his head. So maybe

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Speaker 1: they need to be a little bit more creative in

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Speaker 1: the j R. Smith camp. So I'm looking here at

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Speaker 1: photos of Steph Marbury and in the next jersey with

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Speaker 1: the that's that's star star on his head. So at

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Speaker 1: least at some point in the past, players have been

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Speaker 1: allowed to take the court with a tattoo that was

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Speaker 1: a that was a logo of some sort. Well this

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Speaker 1: was in his hair or a tattoo. No, it's a tattoo.

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Speaker 1: It's on his it's on the side of his temple.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm not really sure how you cover that up,

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Speaker 1: but maybe you can wear your beats by dre over,

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Speaker 1: you know, in a different spot. Yeah, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: think it's fair to say that this is not the

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Speaker 1: NBA picking on j R. Smith. I think this is

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Speaker 1: a business decision protecting the companies that pay a lot

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Speaker 1: of money, uh to be associated with your sports. Supreme

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Speaker 1: would know this. So do you think the play here

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Speaker 1: is that we're all talking about it now? Because if

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Speaker 1: you if you watch gr Smith in a basketball game one,

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Speaker 1: you don't see his castle whole heck of a lot

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Speaker 1: And like you want the TV cameras more than you

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Speaker 1: want the arena to the guys covered in tattoos. So

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Speaker 1: it's not even like this thing stands out. It's the

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Speaker 1: only one he's got. I'm not sure if the r

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Speaker 1: O I of the tattoo in the first Supreme two things.

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Speaker 1: One Supreme does interesting weird marketing things. When when they

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Speaker 1: took over the cover it was the New York Post

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Speaker 1: of the Daily News, the suddenly they were they were

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Speaker 1: reselling on eBay for for a lot more than people

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Speaker 1: paid for them. And you told me about the Meta

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Speaker 1: Metric card was another one. Yeah, Supreme. People don't know.

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Speaker 1: The Metric card is the subway shite card in Manhattan.

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Speaker 1: In a deal with the MTA, which runs the subway

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Speaker 1: here in New York. Supreme put their logo on. It

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Speaker 1: was their red and white cards and one out of

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the number was, but maybe one

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Speaker 1: out of a hundred cards that came out of the

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Speaker 1: machine where a Supreme MetroCards. And I saw that morning,

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Speaker 1: people lining up at each machine. You know, there were

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Speaker 1: lines to that could be a regular morning here and

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Speaker 1: people are buying like Canada of Time, buying ten of Time,

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Speaker 1: just hoping that when it came out it was it

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Speaker 1: was one of the Supreme ones. So they're clearly they

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Speaker 1: do interesting in guerilla type marketing. Uh do we know

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Speaker 1: if they pay? Do they pay j R. Smith to

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Speaker 1: to put this on his body or did he don't know?

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Speaker 1: I mean I'm assuming they paid him to do this

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Speaker 1: or gave him something and maybe just a merchandise deal.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I would love to know the

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Speaker 1: the the history behind the tattoo. But j R. Smith

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Speaker 1: is a is a tweet directly to at Novie Williams

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Speaker 1: underscore Novie Williams. For other basketball players that are roughly

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Speaker 1: his skill level, he gets a lot of attention. Um,

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Speaker 1: so you know, maybe he's the right type of person

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Speaker 1: you want, like forgetting the time on like that's not

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Speaker 1: Is there bad attention in this in this red sport

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Speaker 1: in sports, there might be bad attention. I can't imagine

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Speaker 1: anyone who thinks less of Supreme because j R. Smith

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Speaker 1: put their logo on it. Well, you know who else

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Speaker 1: is getting attention and wants attention? Earl Thomas sad off.

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Speaker 1: But this is like the this is the business of football.

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Speaker 1: This is the business behind it all. Every time fans

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Speaker 1: like lamenting a player bleep and he bleep bleep, get

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Speaker 1: on the field. Remember, I mean, we've had a few

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Speaker 1: people in this country labeled them spoiled millionaire. The whole

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Speaker 1: thing case in point Earl Thomas, Yeah, I mean he's

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Speaker 1: arguing for a long term contract. He's in the final

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Speaker 1: year of his deal. He has been very careful about

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Speaker 1: trying to preserve his health. You know, he skipped a

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Speaker 1: lot of the Seahawks preseason stuff. He's been skipping practices.

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Speaker 1: I'm arguing that in football that's the way to go,

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Speaker 1: like keep yourself forget, forget hitting and practices, forget preseason

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Speaker 1: for sure, save it for the games, buddies. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: when it was it. Todd Gurley, the Rams running back

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Speaker 1: who skipped all the preseason stuff. I think the journalists

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Speaker 1: asked him, like, what you missed all the preseason? What

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Speaker 1: does that mean? You college? The college players skipping their

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Speaker 1: bowl games probably getting smart. I mean, why if you're

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Speaker 1: a star college player about to go for the draft,

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Speaker 1: would you play in a bowl? Yeah. And we've talked

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Speaker 1: about Steelers running back Levian Bell on this show before

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Speaker 1: you know who's taking the extra cream version of this,

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Speaker 1: which is like, I'm not going to play in my

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Speaker 1: contract year. He's lost three million aready at least, and

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Speaker 1: there's a good chance that he doesn't see a field

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Speaker 1: until week ten at the earliest, you know, which is

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Speaker 1: the last he can come back while still getting credit

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Speaker 1: for this season. Um. But you know, Earl Thomas was

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Speaker 1: doing a lot of the smart things, except he played

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Speaker 1: in games and unfortunately looks like he broke his leg yesterday. Um,

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Speaker 1: and as he's this will cut my attention as he's

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Speaker 1: being carded off the field, it appears that he gives

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Speaker 1: the middle finger what to the entire sideline of his team. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the two I mean, the two easy explanations I could

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Speaker 1: think of. One is that it's a it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a flipping the bird to management, or two as the

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Speaker 1: whole game as we saw with Levi on Bell Also,

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Speaker 1: you know, and this surprised me when it happened a

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Speaker 1: few weeks ago with the Steelers, there were players that

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Speaker 1: were pretty outspoken that he was being selfish, you know,

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Speaker 1: that he was, you know, putting himself before the team, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: There's a chance that Earl Thomas has also gotten that

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Speaker 1: from players you know, who think that he's he's not

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Speaker 1: acting in the best interests the team, and that middle

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Speaker 1: finger could very well have been aimed at those people

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Speaker 1: who were, you know, criticizing him for doing what was

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Speaker 1: best for his body when the truth, you know, you

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Speaker 1: take one hit the wrong way, you step the wrong way,

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Speaker 1: and suddenly you know you're out for the year, and

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Speaker 1: that will have a material material impact on his free

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Speaker 1: agent contract at the end of the year. Before you

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Speaker 1: criticize there, but for the grace of the football gods

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Speaker 1: go I you know, off the field. Done for the year. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it's funny. It's part of a larger thing that

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Speaker 1: we've discussed before as well that I feel as though,

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Speaker 1: more so than other sports, NFL players don't seem to

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Speaker 1: work in unison as well as maybe they should, you know.

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Speaker 1: And this is another perfect example of a guy who's

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Speaker 1: you know, understands his career is short. He's at the

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Speaker 1: in the middle or already at the tail end of

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Speaker 1: his career. He probably has one big deal left, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's still playing on on Sundays. He's just you know,

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Speaker 1: he's taking some practices. Well, let let us bring him

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Speaker 1: one of our favorite books and we share the Sun

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Speaker 1: Sues The Art of War, where I mean, yes, there

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Speaker 1: is the just the straight up high ground and all that,

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Speaker 1: but one of the messages in Sun Sue is if

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Speaker 1: you're the general, if you want to be the leader,

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Speaker 1: you cannot enjoy an amenity that the troops do not enjoy. So,

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Speaker 1: for instance, if there's a terrible pounding rain storm and

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Speaker 1: you're the leader, you better not have a tent while

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Speaker 1: everybody else is getting wet. And maybe they think, here

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Speaker 1: Carl Thomas wants a tip. Yeah, it will be interesting

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Speaker 1: to think about what I mean because Levian Bell and

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Speaker 1: now or Old Thomas, both of these have become big stories.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's something that every NFL player is aware of.

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Speaker 1: I do wonder if we may be entering this age

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Speaker 1: where players may be doing more of what Levian Bell

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Speaker 1: is doing. You know, we're certainly seeing more college players,

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Speaker 1: as you said, skipping their final, you know, bowl game

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Speaker 1: because you know, if you're an NFL prospect, it's probably

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Speaker 1: pointless and worthless from a financial standpoint to play in

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Speaker 1: that game. Um. Yeah, the there's gonna be a lot

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Speaker 1: in the next CBA negotiation for the NFL tied to

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Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. The franchise tag will get a

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Speaker 1: hefty look. The ability for teams to continue to hold

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Speaker 1: onto players without giving them long term. Do you is

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Speaker 1: that is something that I imagine d Smith and the

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Speaker 1: NFLPA will be focusing on heavily. Let's finish up later

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Speaker 1: in the week. Our guest is Derek Schiller, president of

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Speaker 1: the Braves. Little Baseball to two games today in baseball

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Speaker 1: never happened before because their tiebreakers. Are you excited you're

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Speaker 1: gonna watch? I'm excited. Yeah, was there kind of right?

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Speaker 1: Can you think of a better major rule change that

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Speaker 1: the sport has done in the past ten years than

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Speaker 1: baseball going to the to the double wild card model.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it has made the final two weeks of

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Speaker 1: the season much more exciting for a number of more teams.

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Speaker 1: You know, the first year they did it, we had

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Speaker 1: that amazing kind of TikTok down final final that was

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Speaker 1: wild and now you know and and this is you know,

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Speaker 1: divisional card, division winners and wild card. But we have

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Speaker 1: two playoff games before we even get to the to

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Speaker 1: the other wild card playoff games. I mean it sounds

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Speaker 1: like you're out if you win, you go to division

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Speaker 1: series if Louisa and you gotta play. Well, sure, but

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Speaker 1: that's a that's that's a big incentive you want to win.

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Speaker 1: It's definitely gonna want to win the critical, critical game

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Speaker 1: to win for both those teams. But yeah, no, I

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Speaker 1: think this is great. It's great for baseball. It's it's

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Speaker 1: good for ESPN, which I think is carrying both those

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Speaker 1: games on Monday during the day and then Monday night

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Speaker 1: they get the they get the Monday night football game obviously, um,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, I think Baseball has done a great job,

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Speaker 1: you know, making opening the postseason and opening options like this,

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Speaker 1: making them more likely heading down into September. Aaron Judge

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Speaker 1: still selling a lot of stuff. By the way, even

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Speaker 1: though we miss a big Yeah, does that surprise you?

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Speaker 1: Doesn't surprise me. Guy like man. He just he hits

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Speaker 1: it high, he hits it hard. He's kind of a nickname.

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Speaker 1: He's marketable. Kids like kids in the ESPN commercials. All right, well, anyway,

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Speaker 1: this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. I'm Scott

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Speaker 1: along with Ebban Nobe Williams. We're here each and every Monday, Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: and Thursday exploring the world of money and sports. Join

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Speaker 1: us again at the end of the week when we

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Speaker 1: speak with Derek Schiller, president of the Atlanta Braves. You're

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Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg Radio around

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Speaker 1: the world and whatever platform you procure your podcast