196 | Paul Kemp (Nike’s Big Bet)

My Summer Lair Chapter #196: Has Nike’s Big Bet Paid Off?

Welcome director Paul Kemp to My Summer Lair to discuss his running documentary Nike’s Big Bet.

In America you can check out Nike’s Big Bet on Peacock; it is 83 minutes.

In Canada the CBC Gem version is 44 minutes so I guess streaming is also “Big Bet.”

Remarkable documentaries are not like sports; there aren’t always clear winners and losers. Here’s Nike’s big bet:

“In 2001 Nike established the Oregon Project as a program to develop elite runners (and put Americans back on top…of course.). Running coach Alberto Salazar was in charge of the program and given free reign to employ his unorthodox tactics to deliver results. In 2019 despite never failing a drug test and his athletes never testing positive, he received a four-year doping ban from all coaching activities and the project immediately collapsed. So…what happened?”

Did Salazar’s “Just Do It” attitude and questionable practices push the limits of human performance and technology too far? And what is fair or even fair play in sports?

Malcolm Gladwell who appears in this documentary said: “It is so typical of the dysfunction of track and field that we will bring down the house on someone operating at the margins. You’re going to bring down the hammer on Alberto Salazar on something that is so complicated that I can’t even follow half the arguments against Alberto Salazar.”

Oh Boy. Shall we get into all this and more with director Paul Kemp who is an actual show runner. You’ll know what I mean as soon as you hit play.

Nike’s Big Bet @ WT F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Monday November 8, 2021 at 1:00Pm EST

182 | Pete Croatto (From Hang Time to Prime Time: The Birth of the Modern-Day NBA)

My Summer Lair Chapter #182: How Did The NBA Evolve From Hang Time To Prime Time?

This will be another NBA episode though not focusing so much on a team or certain players but rather the league itself.

Journalist and writer Pete Croatto has written From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-Day NBA. This book is delicious I consumed it whole like a python.

There’s a reason why when you go see like a Marvel movie, there’s 10 minutes of credits, right? Because there’s a lot of people who made that movie, yet what we tend to focus on or talk about is Robert Downey Jr or Kevin Fiege, or like a handful of stars in front of the camera. Yet without those 10 minutes of credits the Marvel movie is not possible.

So let’s look back to so we can look ahead: From Hang Time to Prime Time is like the NBA’s high school yearbook. Pete’s book deftly documents the corporate rise of the NBA: a league that wasn’t popular much less cool compared to the NFL and MLB. Hard to believe.

Imagine sitting down and talking to the people in those 10 minutes of Marvel’s movie credits: they made it happen. Who in the NBA should get credit for making magic happen even though most of us only know Michael Jordan?

Through many stories and many experiences and many moments Hang Time focuses on the NBA’s cultural transformation and growth especially in the 70s and 80s though thankfully unlike a yearbook there isn’t that many bad hair photos. I’m not sure how we should classify Commissioner David Stern’s mustache.

Kobe’s sudden death was proceeded by David Stern’s death: both in January 2020. Those two deaths formed fascinating bookends of the NBA that was and the NBA that is. On every tombstone you get that dash between dates but that dash can mean so so much. That tiny dash signifies a life though it fails to convey the whole story.

So let’s start there with those 2 significant bookends: Kobe Bryant and David Stern. Because we know Stern and we know Kobe and we know one of them is Prime Time and the other is Hang Time. Heh you can decide which is which.

Pete Croatto @ WT F

Host & Photography Sammy Younan

Recorded: Tuesday December 29, 2020 at 4pm

Stress free pop culture tastefully harvested for your divine delight. Once a week a carefully curated edition of My Pal Sammy goes directly to your inbox. Sign up for my newsletter so we can have some fun…Hang Time!

182 | Pete Croatto (From Hang Time to Prime Time: The Birth of the Modern-Day NBA)

My Summer Lair Chapter #182: How Did The NBA Evolve From Hang Time To Prime Time?


This will be another NBA episode though not focusing so much on a team or certain players but rather the league itself.

Journalist and writer Pete Croatto has written From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-Day NBA. This book is delicious I consumed it whole like a python.

There’s a reason why when you go see like a Marvel movie, there’s 10 minutes of credits, right? Because there’s a lot of people who made that movie, yet what we tend to focus on or talk about is Robert Downey Jr or Kevin Fiege, or like a handful of stars in front of the camera. Yet without those 10 minutes of credits the Marvel movie is not possible.

So let’s look back to so we can look ahead: From Hang Time to Prime Time is like the NBA’s high school yearbook. Pete’s book deftly documents the corporate rise of the NBA: a league that wasn’t popular much less cool compared to the NFL and MLB. Hard to believe.

Imagine sitting down and talking to the people in those 10 minutes of Marvel’s movie credits: they made it happen. Who in the NBA should get credit for making magic happen even though most of us only know Michael Jordan?

Through many stories and many experiences and many moments Hang Time focuses on the NBA’s cultural transformation and growth especially in the 70s and 80s though thankfully unlike a yearbook there isn’t that many bad hair photos. I’m not sure how we should classify Commissioner David Stern’s mustache.

Kobe’s sudden death was proceeded by David Stern’s death: both in January 2020. Those two deaths formed fascinating bookends of the NBA that was and the NBA that is. On every tombstone you get that dash between dates but that dash can mean so so much. That tiny dash signifies a life though it fails to convey the whole story.

So let’s start there with those 2 significant bookends: Kobe Bryant and David Stern. Because we know Stern and we know Kobe and we know one of them is Prime Time and the other is Hang Time. Heh you can decide which is which.


182_Pete Croatto_POST.jpg

Pete Croatto @ WT F

Host & Photography by Sammy Younan

Recorded: Tuesday December 29, 2020 at 4pm (EST)


September 4, 2018
:

Colin Kaepernick’s Nike ad is decent but not as powerfully potent as 2016’s Come Out of Nowhere NBA campaign: MAKE HISTORY NOT APOLOGIES.

Yo so good; soul good.

Kaepernick’s Nike ad means sneaker culture goes full circle: in 1968 Tommy Smith and John Carlos protested during the anthem police brutality (they held up a Puma shoe.) Exact same template as Colin: ostracized from sports, abused…death threats etc.

None of this is new.

~ Sammy Younan

#SetTheVCR: January 26-Febuary 2, 2020

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Hope you like super sports because for some odd reason most of my picks are sporty.

Read the rest of this page »

#SetTheVCR: Crave in January 2019

Yo…#SetTheVCR with Crave this January!

Canada’s Crave is like the PC brand Netflix…heh but it’s got some decent stuff! (No Frills for real…)

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137 | Elizabeth Semmelhack (Sneakers x Culture: Collab)

My Summer Lair Chapter #137: It Is Weird To Use Nike (A Billion Dollar Business) For Self-Expression?

“The urban interest in status sneakers coincided with the increasingly larger cultural trend rampant throughout American society that suggested individual expression could be achieved through brand identification.” Page 108 of Elizabeth Semmelhack’s Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture.


Elizabeth Semmelhack - Bata - 10Dec2019-4.jpg

That’s the quote I employ during our discussion because it documents a fascinating tension. This idea of using a mass-market product like a Nike shoe (Air Force 1 or Dunks) or Jordan shoe to advocate for self-expression is interesting. Nike is a billion dollar business it doesn’t just exist for you to be…somebody.

There are two significant battles that are always worth fighting: one is declaring war on mediocrity; advocating for incredibly high standards for well…everything: teachers, NBA players, podcasters, policeman etc. and the other battle is of course pushing back against conformity.

Sneaker culture easily feeds into both of those relevant fights. It is individualism, it is collaboration, connection, community, design, all connected to broader larger cultures like skateboarding and hip hop, all kinds of music; basketball, the NBA it’s incredible how something so “small” turns on some of the biggest things.

I’m reminded of The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams which opens with:

“so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow”

Right? I’m so grateful when somebody is generous with their time and their ideas.


Elizabeth Semmelhack - Bata - 10Dec2019-3.jpg

Bata Shoe Museum @ WT F

Host Sammy Younan

Photography by Henry VanderSpek aka Culture Snap Photography

Recorded: Tuesday December 11, 2019 at 10am (EST) at Bata Shoe Museum

Trailer Alert: Neal Brennan’s 3 Mics

So if you want a fascinating behind the scenes evolution of Neal Brennan’s superb Netflix comedy special 3 Mics track down The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail.

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Trailer Alert: Kicks

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

On May 14, 1990 Sports Illustrated didn’t feature an athlete on the cover; instead there was a bold headline: YOUR SNEAKERS OR YOUR LIFE. The ensuing article entitled Senseless documented the beginnings of an ugly phenomena known as Sneaker Pimps (think of em as a fence for Nikes). (The British band Sneaker Pimps are excellent…we like them!).

Black kids were shooting other black kids for their sneakers. That is a hard ugly reality to grapple with.

This ugly phenomena started with Air Jordans…and the rise of Nike’s marketing culture which heavily influence the youth in urban areas. (Wieden+Kennedy formed in 1982 the same year Nike started television advertising. Jordan of course was drafted in 84 and the iconic slogan Just Do It debuted in 87). As Jordan and Nike rose to prominence kids went from trading baseball cards with”got it, got it, want it” to “gimme your Air Jordans.”

From the SI article Senseless:

“But, of course, these assailants aren’t simply taking clothes from their victims. They’re taking status. Something is very wrong with a society that has created an underclass that is slipping into economic and moral oblivion, an underclass in which pieces of rubber and plastic held together by shoelaces are sometimes worth more than a human life. The shoe companies have played a direct role in this. With their million-dollar advertising campaigns, superstar spokesmen and over-designed, high-priced products aimed at impressionable young people, they are creating status from thin air to feed those who are starving for self-esteem.”

This idea of taking status is on clear display in Justin Tipping’s feature Kicks (Directorial Debut too!):

Those are some fresh Kicks. I really enjoyed Dope I recommend watching that before while you wait for Kicks which is coming September 9, 2016. Oh and David Kaplan is a Kicks producer…dude was a producer on It Follows!

Sammy’s Status: Yo that’s fresh! I’m so in. I dug Dope and Boyz n the Hood so I’m down for this one.

Sammy Baltic Web

Sammy Younan @ W • T • F

Ziggy Was Here January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016

Writing: My Sole Shift Review of Shoe Dog

My arty pal and cool sneakerhead Craig White e-introduced me to the nice people at Sole Shift Magazine.

Happily I was invited to write about Phil Knight’s memoir Shoe Dog. Sweet.

This is how I closed the review:
The great irony of Nike advertising is the singular focus and celebration of the individual player often in a team sport like basketball or soccer. Yes: Michael Jordan is one of the greatest NBA players (and all his Nike marketing effectively branded his status) yet Jordan still needed Rodman to rebound, Paxon or Kerr to hit those threes and Pippen to draw the D. Jordan truly became successful when he had a legitimate and capable team. Knight’s Nike story is no different than building an NBA contender. He succeeded in business because he surrounded himself with the right team. He invested in the people who believed in his vision and did not waste time trying to convince those who did not.

If you want to succeed in business, if you want to make your 5-9 your 9-5, if you need some encouragement as if Just Do It is not enough, then read Shoe Dog.

To read more visit Sole Shift.

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